Ancient Legacy
by TyrothDarkstorm
Summary: A while back, the turtles met two mutants, who had been mutated by a mysterious well rumored to be magical. Now a new enemy with some form of connection to the well appears. What secrets does the well hold and what is its purpose? Direct sequel to 'Mutant Vigilantes'. Occasional M for swearing, blood and violence. I own only my OC's and plots. Please review :) Chapter 20 is up!
1. Chapter 1

**Hey everyone and welcome to the sequel of Mutant Vigilantes. I strongly recommend that you read that story first, because there may be a few things that ain't that well explained here. And this is a direct sequel. **

**Anyway I hope that you're looking forward to this story, because I know I am, so let's kick things off, shall we.**

**Ancient Legacy**

**Chapter 1**

It was a clear night in May, and the moon shone on the city of New York. A truck stood by an electronics store and a group of people carried boxes between the shop and truck. It was not uncommon that many stores resupplied during the nights, but this store had already been restocked earlier. The men had broken into the shop and were emptying it as they carried the goods to their truck. They were dressed in various clothes and it was easy to see that they were either hoodlums or gang-members, the fact that all of them carried either a mark on their clothes or a tattoo was a clear sign that they were gang-members The symbol used were that of a purple serpentine dragon, most often shaped similar to the letter S.

It was none other than the Purple Dragons, the largest and most powerful gang in all of New York.

"How much do you think this hit will get us?" asked one of the thugs as he placed the last box in the back of the truck.

"I'd say at least six month in jail and one major ass-kicking!" said a strangely glad voice from the roof of the truck. The gang-members looked up and saw a humanoid turtle wearing an orange mask, protective pads on the knees and elbows, a belt and armed with a pair of nunchaku.

"It's one of them fucking freaks!" said another thug.

"He's no freak. And he's not alone." said a confident voice from behind the truck as two more turtles stepped into the light, wearing the same outfit as the first one save for the color of the masks. They had blue and purple masks and were armed with katanas and a staff respectively.

"So how do you guys wanna do this? The easy way, or the hard way?" said another voice as yet another turtle walked into view on the other side of the truck, dressed in a red mask and armed with two sais.

The aggressive turtle was accompanied by a humanoid lizard with a slender, feminine body. She had long brown hair tied back with a pink headband, a black top with a pink floral pattern and a matching loincloth, short tights, fingerless gloves reaching to her elbows and knee high leg warmers or similar, all in black. In her hands she held two fans with sharp metal blades.

"Get them!" yelled one of the gang-members, as they drew their own weapons, consisting of knives, baseball bats, pipes, chains and other objects, and charged at the reptiles.

* * *

It wasn't a fair fight, despite that the gang-members were twice as many as the reptiles, they were not much of a challenge.

The blue-masked turtle easily disarmed two of the thugs with his katanas and kicked away one of them so he could focus on the other one.

The turtle on the truck delivered a jump kick to the chest of the nearest Purple Dragon, sending him to the ground, while whirling his nunchaku at the others.

A swift jab with the staff knocked the knife out of the hand of a spiked haired guy, and a swipe from the purple-masked turtle's staff sent the thug the same way.

The female lizard and red-masked turtle fought side by side, the turtle using his sais to snatch a chain from one guy and using the extra weight to strengthen his punch, he then knocked the next guy unconscious. At the same time the lizard lady moved gracefully as if she was dancing, striking out at whichever thug that was within reach, easily disarming them with her fans and knocking them off their feet with her own feet and tail.

* * *

After a short while, the gang-members were unconscious.

"Well, I guess that's that, Leo." said the purple-masked.

"Seems that way, Donnie" the blue-masked one answered. "Okay, let's tie them up. Raph and Mona, see if you can find some rope. Mikey, help me round up these punks."

The red-masked turtle and lizard started searching the truck after any kind of rope or similar, while the turtle with the orange mask dragged an unconscious thug to a streetlight near the shop.

In the meantime, the purple-masked turtle or Donnie as he was called, searched through one of the unconscious Purple Dragons for money. A necessary evil, but they might need the money some day, and it's not like they could take a part time job to earn some cash. Besides, the Purple Dragon gang is nothing more than criminals, so the money probably wasn't theirs to begin with.

However, while Donnie looked through a wallet he found, the spike haired punk that he knocked down earlier woke up. He got back on his feet after picking up his knife and walked silently towards the unsuspecting turtle.

But before he even got close, a sixth figure leaped out from an alley and kicked him in the chest sending him backwards several meters. This caught the attention of the reptiles who turned around. Between them and the punk with spiky hair stood yet another female lizard. She was dressed in a red turtlenecked t-shirt and a pair of short red tights, had a large ponytail of reddish brown hair and similar pads as the turtles on her knees and elbows. In each hand was a dagger and she had a quiver of arrows on her back.

"I hope that you don't mind me cutting in." she said with a smile as she winked at Donnie.

"Sephie! What a pleasant surprise." Donnie said in response.

"What the hell?" said the punk as he was helped up by two other gang-members who had woken up just before he landed near them. "Another fucking lizard whore!"

"You should not have called me that." Sephie said "My mate don't like it when people insult me."

"Oh yeah, and which one of these freaks would that be?" the spike haired punk said as he waved his knife at the reptiles, with his two friends standing on either side of him.

Then he heard the sound of someone landing after jumping, followed by two punching sounds. He caught sight of how his two wingmen fell to the ground unconscious.

"The one that stands behind you." Sephie said with a smile while crossing her arms.

The guy turned around, expecting to see another turtle or lizard, but was met by the sight of an over two meters tall, red-scaled humanoid dragon with black shorts. He was shocked to say the least. In an attempt to defend himself, the spike haired thug slashed at the dragon with the knife, leaving a long cut across the chest. But the dragon didn't even blink, he merely raised an eyebrow and gave the punk an 'Okay, now what?' look. And when the cut on the chest healed itself seamlessly, the thug understood why.

Dropping knife, the thug put on a nervous smile and tapped the tips of his index fingers against each other.

"Ehm... is there any chance that we could talk about this as civilized people?"

"Nope." said the large reptile, shortly before he punched the guy straight in the face, knocking out both him and several of his teeth.

"That was fun." the dragon said walking over to the other reptiles "So how are you guys doing?"

"Not too bad, Tyroth." Leo answered "It's good to see you two again. Do you mind helping us clean up here before anymore of these creeps wake up?"

* * *

A few minutes later, the police arrived at the scene and saw ten beaten gang-members all tied up to the streetlights and a truck filled recently stolen electronics.

"Seems like someone already dealt with this bunch. Again." said a middle-aged female cop.

"I sure wish we knew who does this all the time." said her junior partner.

"Probably best if we don't know that, Barbra. We might have to lock them up too, and I'm sure there's many in jail who are holding a grudge against these vigilantes."

* * *

"So, what are you two doing in here in New York?" Mona asked as they walked through the sewers.

"It was rather calm back in Chicago, so we thought that we should pay you a visit." Sephie answered "You know, hang out a for a few days, maybe watch some movies, beat up thugs and the like."

"Regarding the movie-watching, the snacks are on us." said Tyroth. He carried a cloth sack over his left shoulder, from which the familiar rustling of snackbags could be heard whenever the sack hit his wings.

"Awesome!" Mikey said.

"It sounds like a good idea," said Leo "But we still have some training to do first." Mikey sighed out of disappointment at Leo's statement.

"Speaking of which, Leo." said Tyroth "You guys let your guard down back there. I hope you're not losing your touch."

"That is why we need to train some more tonight, so that we don't loose our edge. We can't afford to get sloppy. And, by the way, thanks for the assist."

* * *

In the lair, master Splinter was sitting in his room with a cup of herbal tea and enjoyed the peace and calmness of the almost empty lair. Still, he was always a bit worried when his students went topside. Worried that they might be discovered, hurt or even killed, of which the latter had almost happened on a few occasions. He was confident that they could handle themselves, he had trained the four turtles in ninjutsu for almost twenty years and Mona had nearly as much training in various martial arts from when she was human, and on top of that, she had received the same ninja training as the turtles for about two years now. But as the adoptive father of the turtles, and basically the father in law to Mona, he would always be worried about his children.

The sound of the door to the lair opening caught the old rats attention and he walked out his room. After a short walk he reached the entrance.

"Hey, master!" Mikey said "I hope you don't mind that we brought back some guests."

Splinter directly caught sight of the ones Mikey referred to.

"Tyroth. Sephie. Now this is a surprise."

"Hello Splinter, good to see you again." said Sephie "We're planning on staying here for about a week, if that's okay with you, that is. We don't want to be a burden or anything."

"Nonsense, child. The two of you are always welcomed here. Please, make yourselves at home."

"You know where the guestroom is, I hope." said Leo, to which Tyroth and Sephie nodded. "We'll be in the dojo if you need anything."

* * *

After dropping of their things in the guestroom, Tyroth and Sephie walked over to the dojo, where Mona and the turtles preformed various moves that Splinter called out. This went on for about an hour, during which Sephie mimicked some of the moves every now and then. Tyroth only watched.

Once the training was over the turtles and Mona did a few stretches and left the dojo together with Splinter. Sephie and Tyroth.

"Tyroth," Splinter started "I noticed that you do not have your sword. Is it still broken?"

"Yeah, and that's a real shame. It was a good sword. The battle against Overlord took a heavy toll on it. But during the days after Christmas, Sukiwara Haito came by to wish us a merry Christmas. He said that he could repair my sword, but it would take some time. So as far as I know it's currently in Japan."

"I am sure that it is in good hands."

* * *

"Movie time!" Mikey shouted as he claimed the couch. After a few minutes Sephie and Tyroth had prepared several bowls of popcorn, chips and dip, while Donnie and Mona decided on a few movies from their collection. Splinter had retired to his room for some meditation before he would go to sleep.

"Snacks this way, guys." Mikey said as the movie started.

"Not until we've had our share Mikey." said Raph "You barely leave anything for us if you get first dibs on the snacks."

Slightly disappointed, Mikey turned his head to Tyroth who sat on the floor next to the couch. He had his own bowls of snacks and dip, both red.

"Hey, can I have some?" he asked.

"Sure, but I don't think you'll like it." Tyroth answered.

"Really? What are you having?"

"Habanero chilis and some form of hot sauce, not sure what kind, but it's hot alright." he said as he ate a few dipped chilis, with no signs of the strong heat that he should feel.

"Dude, how can you eat that?! You should be burning up from the inside!"

"Mikey, I'm a fire-breathing dragon-mutant. Some spicy food won't harm me. Still want some?"

"Eh... no thanks. I'll just wait for the other bowls."

**So the turtles and Mona once again meet Tyroth and Sephie. What adventures await the mutants? That may be told in the next chapter.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Ancient Legacy**

**Chapter 2**

After a total of three movies, the gang headed of to their respective bedrooms for some well needed rest. Sephie woke up the next day, lying on Tyroth's chest. She smiled at the serene look on his face and gave him a kiss on his cheek before getting out of bed to get dressed. As soon as she was dressed, she attempted to leave the room, but was stopped by a light tug in her tail.

"And where do you think you're going, love?"

She turned around and saw Tyroth smiling at her while he gently held the tip of her tail in his hand.

"I was going to make some breakfast for the two of us, but if you're going to stop me, I guess that we'll both go hungry." Sephie replied teasingly. "But, if you got a better idea, handsome, we could simply postpone the breakfast for now." She leaned in and the two shared a passionate kiss.

"Tempting, but I'm afraid that we'll have to wait. We don't live here, so we have to behave ourselves."

"Spoilsport." Sephie said and got up. "Oh well, your loss."

"How about a rain check?"

"Sure." said Sephie as she winked. "Now, get dressed and I'll meet you in the kitchen."

* * *

"Hi Sephie." Mona called as the two met outside the kitchen. "Slept well?"

"Yeah, I did. I'm gonna make some breakfast, do you want some?"

"Yes, please. As long as it isn't scrambled eggs. Mikey makes it almost all the time, and frankly I'm a bit tired of it."

It didn't take long before Sephie was making pancakes and a pot of porridge, while Mona made the table.

"So, what should we do more while we're here?" Sephie asked "All of us, that is."

"I don't know. Mikey would probably want to have a videogame tournament." Mona said.

"Not a bad idea. Videogames aren't really my thing, but I'm in. What do you say about karaoke someday?"

"That would be fun, but I have to warn you. Mikey likes karaoke, but I think he's tone deaf."

"Well he's got the lung-capacity for singing, that I've noticed." Sephie chuckled. "What about the other three, any great singers among them?"

"Donnie's got a rather soft voice, but Leo, being the more artistic one, might be the better of the two. Raph on the other hand, could be considered above average. But it also depends on what song they'll be singing."

"True, but regardless, I think you'll do wonderful, because you have a very beautiful voice."

"Thank you, Sephie. Just so you know, so do you."

"Really? I've never noticed that myself. Hey, how about that we team up and do a duet? We could wipe the floor with the guys."

"I think you are a bit competitive, but sure why not. How about Tyroth? Is he a good singer?"

"I don't know, to tell you the truth. As far as I know, he's never sung in his life. But he got a good deep voice, so who knows. Hey, I just got a crazy idea!" said Sephie as she turned of the stove.

"Should I be worried?" Mona asked.

"Maybe. What if the seven of us formed a band and went on a tour across the nation? Wouldn't that be awesome?"

"Okay, now I **am** worried. That wouldn't work, you know that we can't be seen by people. Most both fear and hate us because we're mutants."

"I wasn't serious, Mona, and there is a way around that. If they think we're wearing costumes, that wouldn't be a problem. There's at least one other band that already did that. What was their name, **Lordi** I think. Admit that it would have been fun to do it."

"True, it sounds like fun, even if it's a bad idea."

"What are you two talking about?" asked Tyroth as he walked into the kitchen. "Hi, Mona."

"Oh, hi Tyroth. Only a few ideas of what to do during your stay here."

"Hmm, okay." he said as he sat down. "I recommend that you two start eating before the others get here, so you actually get something. They sounded hungry."

* * *

It didn't take much longer before all of the residents in the lair had made their way into the kitchen for something to eat. There was a rather lively discussion about the activities that Sephie and Mona had spoken about, except the idea about starting a band, they kept that one a secret.

A few other suggestions were made by the turtles. Skating through the sewers was one of them, it did however require that they got hold of some wheels for Tyroth and Sephie. The possibility of going swimming at the Coney Island beach was also an option, especially since the weather had been quite warm for the season.

After they had finished their breakfast and washed the dishes, the mutants headed over to the dojo for their daily training. They started with preforming what ever moves Splinter told them, like the day before, and Sephie mimicked several of them from the sidelines while Tyroth observed, as they did before. After about an hour, Splinter told his students that they would continue with sparring exercises.

This time Sephie couldn't just stand by and watch, she wanted in on the training, which Splinter allowed. They were split into three groups, Leo and Raph, Mona and Donnie, and lastly Mikey and Sephie. Under the watchful eyes of Splinter, the young mutants began exchanging blows with their weapons, trying to disarm or disable their opponent without causing any serious injuries, while they also defended themselves against counterattacks.

Leo and Raph were very even in terms of skill, although Raph was more aggressive, Leo was the more disciplined of the two.

The fight between Donnie and Mona was also very even. With his staff, Donnie had the reach needed to counter the flexibility of Mona and her fans.

For Mikey however, things were not going as well. He was known to be the most unpredictable of the turtles, but Sephie was more unpredictable than him. Her feints and an overall improvised fighting-style forced Mikey to stay defensive.

This session continued for forty five minutes, after which Splinter complimented his students as well as giving them some constructive criticism. Just before they walked out of the dojo, Tyroth spoke.

"Now that you've had your warm up, how about going a round against me?" This caused the group quite some confusion.

"Didn't you say that you were either to dangerous or not good enough to train with us last time we asked you to?" Donnie asked.

"I did say that. But thanks to the meditation Splinter taught me, I've gotten a lot better at controlling my instincts. I may not be able to go all out against you without risking to harm you, but it's not far left. If master Splinter allows it, then I'm ready to go if any of you are."

Splinter pondered on what Tyroth had said and studied his face, with a focus on the eyes.

"Are you sure that you will be able to control yourself?" the old rat asked.

"I am."

"Hmm. Very well, I will allow it. But when I tell you to stop it is over."

"Understood. So who wants some?"

"I'll have a go at it." said Raphael "We never actually finished our first fight. So why not now?"

"That's okay with me. One rule first though. We'll keep it strictly hand-to-hand, no weapons other than our own appendages. Agreed?"

"Agreed, so long as your fire breathing doesn't count as an appendage."

"Fair enough."

* * *

A few moments later, the two mutants stood facing each other in the dojo, both in their respective fighting stance, while the rest stood on the sideline. Splinter let his gaze sweep from one to the other, they were ready to begin at a moments notice. He then closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

"Begin!" he shouted.

Raph made the first move, charging at Tyroth who stood still. Once he got close enough, Raph made a roundhouse kick. Tyroth blocked the kick with his left arm and countered by doing a swiping kick of his own. This forced Raph to roll backwards onto his shell, the roll continued into a handstand from which Raph flipped back onto his feet. Tyroth rushed against his opponent and threw a punch, Raph dodged the punch and followed up with on of his own, aiming at the stomach. Using his left hand, Tyroth caught Raph's punch, but Raph quickly launched another punch with his free arm.

Tyroth released Raph's fist and took a few quick steps backwards, out of Raph's reach, he then attacked with a roundhouse kick. Bending backwards, Raph barely avoided the kick but he was not out of the woods yet. Tyroth still had momentum both towards Raph and in a circular motion. Raph had to step back several feet to avoid the tail and the second kick.

As soon as the last kick was cleared, Raph executed a jump kick. He narrowly missed as Tyroth ducked. The two quickly turned around so they once again faced each other. Then they both charged and started trading punches. No one scored a hit as they parried, blocked, deflected and countered each others punches.

* * *

"Wow. Talk about intense." said Mikey.

"I'll say." Donnie commented "They're both equally fast and agile, which is surprising considering how large Tyroth is compared to Raph. And that puts Raph at a disadvantage, because Tyroth is at least twice as strong as we are, but he still got the speed to match us."

"I hope they don't hurt each other to much." Mona said "Or rather that Tyroth don't hurt Raph to much."

"Don't worry Mona. Tyroth got it under control." Sephie comforted.

* * *

A swift kick from Tyroth at Raph's side forced the turtle to block it with both hands. Despite that he instinctively knows how to disperse the force of attacks he blocks, the kick sent him a few meters to the side. He managed to keep his balance.

'Damn. That felt like getting hit by a log. Better keep on the move.' Raph thought to himself.

Raph changed his tactics, constantly moving around Tyroth while he punched and kicked whenever he got the chance. But Tyroth was able to dodge Raph's attacks and make some of his own. Luckily Raph managed to dodge as well.

When Tyroth threw a punch with his right arm, Raph dived under it and landed a punch of his own in the chest of Tyroth. Raph smiled at the fact that he had hit him, but his joy was short-lived. Tyroth quickly turned around, hitting Raph with the tail, sending him rolling across the floor. He quickly got back on his feet and lunged at Tyroth with yet another jump kick.

This time, instead of ducking, Tyroth jumped as high as he could. As soon as Raph landed, he instinctively jumped after the dragon. That's when it became clear for Raph that he had made a mistake. Unlike himself, Tyroth could actually fly. Flapping his wings to stay aloft, Tyroth ruled the air.

With a strong hand, Tyroth caught Raph by the neck and threw him at a mattress and dived after him. Raph hit the mattress quite hard and was thankful that it cushioned his fall. He was about to get up when Tyroth landed, pinning the turtle to the mattress with his left foot, the three claws scratching the plastron slightly.

"Had enough?" Tyroth asked.

"Okay, you beat me, now can you get of my shell?"

Tyroth stepped back and helped Raph back up.

"Well fought, both of you. You preformed excellently, adapting as the circumstances changed." said Splinter.

"I could have beaten him, if he'd stayed on the ground." said Raph.

"I don't think so, Raph." said Leo "Actually, I don't think any of us could beat him one-on-one, but as a team we might do it."

"Precisely Leonardo." Splinter commented "While all of you are capable fighters on your own, together you are stronger than the sum of your parts." Splinter then turned to Tyroth. "And I am happy to see that you have made such progress, Tyroth."

"The meditation has helped a lot, and not only with that, but with this as well." Tyroth clenched his right hand and it started to glow with a faint red light, that quickly intensified.

"Wow." Mikey said.

"How do you do that?" Donnie asked.

"I'm not entirely sure, but at least I have control over it. After our fight with Overlord last year, I started using meditation to learn what that energy I used back then was. Remember that red sphere I told you about, the one in my subconscious? It took some time but I learned how to bring out the energy from it again. And I can use it to strengthen my attacks, which can be seen by the red glow."

"Many of my martial arts teachers believed that the mind is the greatest weapon." said Mona "And you can really use it as a weapon. That's just incredible."

"Indeed." said Splinter.

"Anyway. Someone else that wants to train with me?" Tyroth's gaze swept across his friends, and out of mischief, stopped on Mikey.

"Um... no thanks, dude. I like my shell as it is, without dents. But if we go topside, you might find someone to train with." said Mikey a bit nervously.

"That sounds like a good idea, Mikey." said Leo "Grab your gear everyone, and we'll head out."

"Stay safe, young ones." said Splinter as the seven mutants collected their weapons, shell-cells and a few other things, before leaving the lair.

* * *

"Fucking freaks!" said the spike haired Purple Dragon as he sat in his bunk-bed in a prison cell. "Once I get out of here, I'm gonna skin them and make me a fortune selling reptile-boots."

"I hear you, Paul, but could you pipe down? Geesh." said another Purple Dragon with blond dreadlocks, lying in the top bed. "I hate those freaks just as much as you do, but getting deprived of sleep won't help us."

"Sam's right, so shut up!" said a third thug, this one was slim and bald and lay in the middle bed.

"Or what, Jim?" Paul snapped at Jim.

"I'll beat you up until the guards get here and place us in solitary confinement! Then I might get some sleep."

"_And here I thought that your kind believed that there would be no peace for the wicked."_ said a disembodied voice.

"Who said that?!" Paul asked and got up from his bed.

"_Who I am is of no importance. What I offer, however, is."_

"And what do you offer?" asked Sam. Now all three of the inmates were out of bed, searching for the source of the voice.

"_Power."_

"What kind of power?" said Jim.

"_Power that would allow you to surpass your kinds limits. All you have to do is to swear loyalty to my master, and I'll grant you a place among our ranks, as my elites."_

"How do we know that you'll keep your word?" Jim asked.

"_You don't, but would you rather rot here or help claim this land for my master? Once the deal is made, you will be at my disposal, and you'll feel power like never before."_

The three thugs discussed amongst them for a few minutes, whispering so that the voice wouldn't hear them, even though it probably could read their minds.

"Okay." said Paul "We accept, but on one condition. When we get this power you speak of, before following you to, wherever it is we're going, we get to kill the freaks that beat us last night."

"_You'll get one chance and one chance only."_

"Then we have ourselves a deal."

"_Indeed. Then let's get started."_

Painful screams echoed throughout the prison as the cell containing the three thugs was illuminated.

**I really wanted to have a good fight between Raphael and Tyroth, and I'm pleased with how it turned out. Hope you are as well. Anyway, what will happen to the team on patrol and what happened to the thugs? Read on and find out.**


	3. Chapter 3

**Ancient Legacy**

**Chapter 3**

The group of mutants leaped across the roof tops as they patrolled New York.

"Are you okay, hun?" Mona asked.

"Aside from my pride, yeah, I'm fine, babe." Raph answered.

"There's no need to feel bad," said Sephie "you lasted longer against Tyroth than anyone else have done before. Except Overlord, but he was a five meters tall cyborg with military grade weapons, so he doesn't count."

"If you ask me, I think Raph's a sore loser." chuckled Mikey.

"Nobody asked you and if you don't watch it Mikey, you're the one that's gonna be sore!" Raph snapped back.

"I think we'd better change the subject of this conversation before it gets out of hand." Donnie said to Leo, who nodded in agreement.

"So... what have the two of you been doing these last couple of months?" he asked Tyroth and Sephie.

"Oh, nothing out of the ordinary. Mostly beating up thugs, you know." answered Tyroth.

"We did have a remarkably good Christmas though." said Sephie. "Especially the days after Christmas day."

"And why were they better than Christmas itself?" Leo asked.

"Most of our human friends came by during that time to spend some time with us," said Tyroth "Including Haito."

"Haito?" Donnie asked "You mean Sukiwara Haito? He not only visits you, but you're on a first-name basis with him as well? I swear, if I weren't green already, I'd turn green out of envy."

"He stops by whenever he can, since he makes business trips every now and then. If you come by some time you might get to meet him yourself. We'll even introduce you." said Sephie.

"Either way," Tyroth continued "that time was by far the best Christmas we've had since our mutation thanks to one new guest. Jennifer."

"Your sister? That's wonderful. How is she?" asked Mona.

"She's doing just fine. She got an apartment and a job a grocery store not far from her new home. After the holiday, she came by with leftovers from the Christmas dinner with our family. She said it was sort of a Christmas present, as she couldn't afford anything for us until her economy gets more stable. But that didn't stop us from giving one to her."

"May I ask what that was?" Leo asked.

"Nothing fancy, just a vial of water from the well, in case she'd want to become a mutant too."

"WHAT!?" Mona and the turtles exclaimed.

"I'm just messing with you, of course we wouldn't give her something like that." The five ninja sighed in relief. "We got her a cheap necklace with a blank tag, almost like the ones soldiers get in the army, we then engraved the word 'family' onto the tag. In Norse runes."

"Runes, can she read that?" asked Mikey.

"Indeed she can. I taught her when we still lived in Sweden." Tyroth answered.

"Wait. You're Swedish? You never told us that." said Raph.

"Didn't seem relevant last time we were here. Anyway, we emigrated here when I was ten, dad got a good job offer in Charleston, Illinois, but before that we lived in the northern parts of Sweden. Near the city of Kiruna, if you know it by any chance."

"I've heard of it." said Mona "Isn't there a hotel made entirely of ice nearby?"

"Yep."

"How about you, Sephie? Where are you from?" Donnie asked.

"Springfield, Illinois, so I'm American. Not that nationality matter to me, there are good and bad people everywhere, regardless of what country they're from."

"How did the two of you meet anyway? Springfield and Charleston aren't exactly neighboring each other. I don't mean to pry, but I'm very curious." said Mona.

"It was six years ago, I was nineteen at that time," Tyroth started "every once in a while, mom and Jennifer went shopping in Springfield, and this time I joined them out of boredom. After a few hours there, we ran into a bloke that was pestering a group of girls. Mom told me not to get involved, she knew that I disliked bullies and the like. I kept calm for a while, but when he pushed one of the girls, who kindly asked him to leave them alone, I couldn't stand by anymore."

"If anyone wonders, I was that girl, sixteen years old, and that jerk said that he wanted to give us a 'good time'. Creep." said Sephie.

"Anyhow, when I asked him to let them be, he tired to punch me. I managed to duck and countered with a punch of my own. Hit him square in the face. And before he tried to attack me again, Sephie kicked him in the crotch while his back was turned towards her."

"Unluckily for him, I was wearing my favorite steel-tipped boots that day." said Sephie with a smile.

"Once he was down, I got my first good look at Sephie and we sort of bonded. We became good friends, traded phone numbers, talked on the phone quite often and after two weeks, I asked her out. It just clicked, for a lack of better words."

"And we've been together ever since. For the record, I could have beaten that creep on my own, but you don't have to be an actual damsel in distress to fall for a knight in shining armor." Sephie continued with a giggle.

"Perhaps not the best way to meet someone," said Mona "but I'm happy that it worked out so well for you."

"Hold up, guys." said Leo. The mutants stopped and looked at what Leo pointed at. Down on the other side of the street stood a guy, trying to steal a parked car, but he was having trouble getting the door open.

"I've got this." said Tyroth and dived of the building.

* * *

The car thief was struggling with the lock on the car-door and kept a close eye on his surroundings. With an exception for the sky above. Without any warning something swooped down and grabbed him by his shoulders, lifting him of the ground and moving through the air very quickly. Before he could get a look at whatever picked him up, he was thrown into an open dumpster as they passed an alley. Once in the thrash, he managed to see a shadow of some sort flying away, but only briefly.

"That should leave him with a few unanswered questions." said Donnie. "I must say that I'm impressed with Tyroth's flying skills, he seems to be just as adept at flying like we turtles are at swimming."

"He learned how to fly after only a few months, said that it felt natural." said Sephie "We were jumping across rooftops, much like now, when all of a sudden he started to flap his wings and off he went. Took at least ten seconds before he realized that he was flying. I'm not sure who of us were the most surprised, but I guess that he was, since he crashed into a wall shortly after."

"Speaking of surprises." said Mona "Last year when you, me and Tyroth flew across town, I noticed that you seemed to have done it before. I wanted to ask about it, but we had more pressing things to deal with."

"Yeah, we fly together quite often actually. Sometimes he carries me, sometimes I lie on his back and other times I stand on him as if he was a surfboard, it gives a whole new meaning to the word 'windsurfing'."

"Isn't that dangerous? You could fall of if he have to make a sharp turn." said Leo.

"True, but remember, I'm part gecko, and I can get a grip almost as good as on any other surface. But, I won't deny that I was nervous the first times. But the first time he took me flying, that I'll never forget."

"Care to share that story with us?" asked Mona.

"Sure. Let's see, it was four months after our mutation and our first anniversary was just around the corner, we're engaged you see. Anyway, I was feeling a bit depressed, while I had accepted what had happened to us, I was still sad about, well, most things we've lost. Tyroth noticed this and got an idea. He brought me with him on what I thought was just another patrol. Once we got to the top of one of the taller buildings, he asked if I would like to fly with him.

I was hesitant to the idea at first, but he assured me that it would be safe, and a good opportunity to clear my head. He picked me up and carried me like a groom carries his bride as we flew over the city. He flew out over Lake Michigan, and the view was incredible. The sky was free of clouds, the moon was full and you could see every star, all reflected on the surface of the lake. It was just so beautiful. Being carried in his arms, feeling his warmth, hearing his heart. He told me that no matter what happens, he will always love me. That whole thing sort of healed my spirit and gave me new strength."

"You're very lucky to have such a compassionate mate." said Leo.

"Not to mention romantic. They really know how to make us girls feel loved." said Mona and gave Raph a wink, who blushed slightly.

* * *

A few minutes later, Tyroth landed on the roof.

"What took you?" asked Mikey.

"Just wanted to make sure that he didn't try again, but I think he got the message. So, shall we move on?"

"Yeah, let's do another sweep of the area, then we'll head back to the lair." said Leo and led the way.

"And once we're back, I say that we have ourselves a video-game tournament." said Mikey.

"Didn't I tell you?" said Mona to Sephie, and they both giggled.

**That's a whole lot of dialog, but I felt that I needed to develop the back story of Tyroth and Sephie with some more info from before they met the gang. The next chapter will probably have some more action, if it goes as planned.**


	4. Chapter 4

**Ancient Legacy**

**Chapter 4**

After returning from their patrol, Mikey immediately started preparing for their videogame tournament. It took a few minutes before they had agreed on what game they would play, and the chosen game was Mortal Kombat.

The first round was between Mona, who used Kitana, and Leo, who had chosen Kabal. The match was very even but in the end, Mona was the winner. Being the good sport that he was, Leo didn't care that he lost and thanked Mona for a good game.

Round two featured Sonya, played by Sephie, and Raiden, played by Raph, and it too was very even, but a lot more hectic than the previous match. The fact that Sephie was competitive showed a lot as she gave Raph a run for his money. Ultimately, Sephie emerged victorious, much to Raph's frustration.

Tyroth and Mikey were up next and used Sub-Zero and Scorpion respectively. Mikey had the advantage throughout the first half of the fight, as Tyroth was completely unfamiliar with the game but he didn't back down for that. Once he'd gotten hang of the controls, he fought back and the odds were a bit more even.

Donnie, who had yet to play, got a call on his shell-cell while watching the game. It was from April. He walked away from the others so he could hear what April had to say.

"Hello, Donnie here."

"Hey, Donnie. Is Casey with you?" April asked.

"No. Why do you ask?"

"I was taking a shower and when I came out, he was gone and he left his phone, but took his bag of bats and clubs as well as his mask. I thought that he might be with you guys."

"I'm sorry to say this, but we haven't seen him at all tonight."

"Then he must be out on his own, I hope nothing has happened to him. There were news reports about a break out from jail, three Purple Dragons are missing after some strange figures broke down the walls from the inside. Could you please look for him, I'm worried about him."

"Don't worry, April. We'll find him." Donnie quickly walked back to the others. "It was April, Casey's missing and she wants us to look for him." Everyone turned their attention to Donnie.

"Then we better get going as fast as possible." said Leo.

"Can I at least win this match first?" said Mikey, as he looked at his two brothers.

"Nope." said Tyroth, who started hammering the buttons on his controller. Before Mikey had a chance to return to the game, he heard the dreaded words 'Finish him' followed by 'Fatality'.

"No fair!"

"Heh. You snooze, you loose, bro." Raph chuckled.

"Trying to find one guy in New York is not going to be easy." said Mona.

"Then we have to split up and cover a larger area." said Leo "Tyroth, you're on air patrol since you can fly. Raph and Mikey take the rooftops and check the alleys, Mona and Sephie will do the same while Donnie and I take the battle-shell and check the more public areas. And keep in touch, check in at regular intervals."

* * *

Five minutes later, the seven mutants were on their way all over the city, with April's and Casey's apartment as the starting point of their search. Tyroth headed north, Leo and Donnie east, Raph and Mikey south and Mona and Sephie west.

After ten minutes of searching, Leo contacted the others.

"This is Leo. Any sign of Casey yet?" he asked.

"Nothing in the south, Fearless." Raph responded.

"The western parts haven't yielded anything yet." said Sephie.

"Not as much as a hockey stick here in the north." said Tyroth.

"Keep searching, he can't simply vanish into thin air." said Leo.

"Will do... Whoa, hold it." said Tyroth. "I just saw a guy fitting Casey's description walking into an alley. I'm going in for a closer look."

"Be careful not to be seen, Tyroth." Leo cautioned.

Tyroth silently soared over the alley and landed at the other end of it, sticking to the shadows. Careful not to be spotted, he observed the guy as he walked closer. He had the same build and hair as Casey, wore similar clothes, jeans, an open jacket with a tanktop under and a golfbag with various clubs and the like. In his left hand, he held something about a foot long wrapped in paper, it didn't appear be heavy though.

Once the distance between the two had decreased, Tyroth was certain that it was Casey.

"Nice night for a walk, wouldn't you say, Jones?" he said, still hiding in the shadows.

"Wh-what? Who's there? How do you know my name?" the Casey said, looking around as he reached for one of the bats and clubs in his bag.

"Well, you did tell me yourself last year." Tyroth said and stepped out of the shadows.

"Tyroth!? Didn't expect to see you again. I was kinda worried for a while there. How are you doing, man? And what are you doing here?"

"Your wife was worried about you after you left without you phone."

"My phone? But I got my phone right in this pocket... here...?" Casey pulled out the contents of said pocket, some change, two gumballs and a small notepad.

"This is the note I wrote for April, telling her that I went for a walk. I thought I left it for her."

Tyroth shook his head at Casey and picked up his shell-cell and dialed the others.

"Tyroth here, I've found Casey. He's unharmed, if a bit senile."

"Who are you calling senile?!" Casey protested.

"That's Casey alright." said Raph over the cell.

"I'll keep an eye on him on the way back. We'll meet you back at April's place."

"Are you sure?" Donnie asked.

"Yeah."

"Okay, stay safe." said Leo.

"Be careful, love." said Sephie.

* * *

"So what were you doing out here all alone at this hour?" Tyroth asked Casey as the two walked through the alleys.

"I went to buy some roses for April. It was an impulse, but I think she deserves it. But it was near impossible to find any at this time of night."

"Okay. What about your sports gear?"

"You know how the streets can be at night. Better safe than sorry."

"In that case I hope those are very beautiful roses, or you'll need more protection than a hockey goalie if April's mad at you."

"Hopefully she won't be mad, but if she is, at least I'll have seven mutants there to protect me."

"Don't get your hopes up. You... wait. What's that smell?" Tyroth started sniffing the air.

"What smell? Do you mean the roses, or my cologne?"

"No, it's sort of musky and smoky. Like incenses."

"Incenses? Doesn't Splinter use that?"

"Yeah, but he's not the only one. I've got a feeling that we're being watched."

"By who?"

Almost as if they was waiting for those words, ten black-dressed men descended from the roofs of the surrounding buildings via the fire-escapes. An additional ten stayed on the fire-escapes. A red three-pronged symbol adorned their suits, and they were armed with various weapons that would be used by ninja.

"By them. The Foot."

"Ah hell." Casey said as he drew two baseball bats from his bag. "I'm guessing your sword's still broken, but I got an extra bat with me if you want to borrow."

"Thanks but I'll manage." said Tyroth, raising his fists.

"You're sure? It's aluminum."

"Well in that case, batter up!"

**Looks like Casey and Tyroth got a fight on their hands. And with the others on their way to April, will they know what's happening? Stay tuned.**


	5. Chapter 5

**Ancient Legacy**

**Chapter 5**

"So Casey's alright then. That's good to know, but he'd better have a really good explanation when he gets home." said April after Leo told her that they found Casey.

"I'm sure he had his reasons." Leo assured.

"For his sake I hope that it's a good one, but I wouldn't want to be in his shoes either way." said Raph.

"Shouldn't he and Tyroth be back soon?" asked Mona.

"They're probably being cautious so Tyroth won't be seen." said Donnie "There's no need to be..." 'beep-beep-beep' "...worried."

"What? What's that beeping?" April asked.

"The distress call. Something has gone wrong." said Leo "Let's go!"

"Be careful, and come back alive all of you." said April.

"We'll make sure that Casey's safe." said Sephie as the six mutants quickly left through the windows and headed to the roof.

"Which way are we heading, Donnie?" Mikey asked.

"North, they don't appear to be more than a couple of blocks away. Wait, they're moving."

"Where to?" said Mona

"Their trajectory indicates that they seem to be moving towards a nearby parking lot."

"Then that's were we're heading as well." said Leo as he took point.

* * *

Earlier in the alley, Tyroth and Casey were giving the Foot-ninja some serious resistance. With two wooden baseball bats, Casey was able to hold his own against the two ninja facing him, while Tyroth, armed with an aluminum baseball bat, covered Casey's back by dealing with the majority of the ninja. Several were already knocked out and a few were even dead.

Casey sidestepped to avoid a slash from a katana and countered by knocking the sword out of the ninja's hand with his bat, quickly followed by a blow to the knee and finally over the head. The other ninja moved to to stab the young vigilante with a bladed staff. Barely missing its mark, the blade left a large tear in Casey's jacket. Using the miss to his advantage, Casey moved closer to the ninja and kicked him in the stomach with his knee.

"Goongala!" Casey shouted as he floored the ninja with a strike to the head.

Tyroth, not really needing the bat, caused great pain for any ninja that got within reach. Where they pretty much were forced to go. They had tried to wear down the dragon by throwing shurikens at him, but they were simply pushed out of the wounds by Tyroth's accelerated healing. One ninja on the fire-escapes tried to restrain Tyroth by using the chain on his kusarigama (one-hand sickle with a weight at the end of a chain).

The chain wrapped itself around the mutants left wrist and the ninja pulled as hard as he could. Tyroth felt how his arm was pulled upwards to the side and quickly knocked out one of the ninja that he currently fought with. He grabbed the chain with his left hand and pulled it himself. The ninja had a strong firm grip on the chain, and that was bad news. He was pulled of the fire-escape towards Tyroth, who greeted the ninja with a headbutt straight in the face, most likely breaking the neck of the poor man. Tyroth removed the chain as fast as he could so the other ninja wouldn't get enough time to attack him. Three ninja attempted this during that time, but Tyroth was prepared and free from the chain. He parried a slash from a sword with the bat and countered with a kick to the side, claws first. A sharp pain in the side struck the Foot-ninja as the dragon's sharp claws pierced his flesh and the force threw him against a dumpster, leaving him to bleed to death.

The second ninja managed to get close enough to slash Tyroth in his side, other than the wound, that was already closing itself, this only made Tyroth focus on said ninja. A swift left hook sent the ninja to the realm of dreams. The last of the three ninja was easily disarmed by a swipe of Tyroth's tail, and a kick to the stomach sent him flying into the wall behind him.

"I'm calling the others before this gets out of hand." said Tyroth as he picked up his shell-cell.

"Why bother? You and me got this covered." said Casey, keeping an eye on the remaining Foot-ninja.

A large roar echoed across the rooftops, causing everyone to stop in their tracks and look at the source of the roar. There, on top of the building at the end of the alley, stood three strange creatures, with almost human builds. One was almost three meters tall, inhumanly muscular and with skin that resembled sandpaper. The second was skinny, almost skeletal, with slim tendrils protruding from the head and strange whip like appendages from both wrists, with what appeared to be razor running the length of them. The third had sharp claws on the hands and feet, mandibles and a large number of short pointed horns on the head. All three had yellow glowing eyes and wore tattered prison clothes.

They jumped down from the roof and started moving towards the fighters once they landed. The horned one opened its mouth and a stream of green fire filled with spikes shoot out of the mouth. This caught its intended target of guard, the poor ninja flailed around trying to put out the fire while screaming in fear and pain. A bladed whip slashed at the burning man and cut him in half.

"What are you waiting for? Things just got out of hand, make the call!" said Casey, clearly worried about the newcomers.

"Already done. Now run!"

"What? Where are we going?"

"Don't argue, just follow me."

The beasts engaged the remaining ninja, which tried to flee. Not all made it. The beasts then turned their attention to the fleeing mutant and non-ninja and gave chase.

* * *

Tyroth and Casey ran across the streets, not bothering to stick to the shadows.

"Like I said, where are we going, big guy?"

"I saw a parking lot not far from here before. I'd rather fight these things in a more open area than the alley. Besides, the risk of any civilians getting caught in this is hopefully lower there."

* * *

"They've reached the lot, but they're still moving around. Must be fighting something." said Donnie.

"What could they be fighting if they had to move there?" asked Mona.

"Um... those maybe." said Mikey as the parking lot came into view, and they saw their friends dodging attacks from the three beasts among several ruined cars.

"What the shell are those things?!" Raph exclaimed.

"Your guess is as good as mine. But Tyroth and Casey needs help either way!" said Leo.

* * *

Casey ducked behind a car, hoping to be able to catch his breath, while Tyroth were fighting the largest of the beasts. So far only Casey's jacket had been hit by the whips and the fire-breathing thing seemed to be more interested in Tyroth, who was forced to avoid the spike-filled bursts of fire as well as the punches from the larger one. During all this, Tyroth had dropped the aluminum bat he'd borrowed, and had to fight with only his own body. Every time he hit the large beast, he hurt himself on the rough skin, despite this he seemed to be able to handle himself at the moment.

But Casey still couldn't fight the skeleton-like thing, the whips had a far too large range. He didn't have time to think more about what to do, as a sharp whip cut of the top on the car he was hiding behind, effectively turning it into a convertible.

"Hey, ugly! Leave our pal alone!" someone shouted from the side. Casey and the beast turned their heads and saw six humanoid reptiles rushing towards them, with weapons drawn. The skeletal beast raised its arms, ready to lash out with the whips. Two arrows embedding themselves in the shoulder joints staggered the beast and a strong kick to the chest from the red-masked turtle sent it to the ground.

"You okay, Casey?" asked Mikey as he helped him to his feet.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Thanks for the save."

"How the shell did you manage to piss off these things?" asked Raph.

"We were just minding our own business, walking back home through the alleys. Then the Foot ambushes us, and when we're winning these three show up and start massacring anyone in their way."

"We'll sort this out later," said Leo "right now we have to deal with these things. Donnie, help Tyroth with the big one. Sephie, you and Casey keep the horned one busy while Mikey, Raph, Mona and I deal with the last one." The gang nodded.

* * *

The horned beast was about to spit another burst of flames at Tyroth's back, when he felt a sharp pain in the lower parts of his back. Turning around to see what had hit him, he got struck by a baseball bat in the face, forcing him backwards.

* * *

Donnie did a pole-jump over a wrecked car and delivered an overhead swipe with his staff to the large beast fighting Tyroth. The staff hit right on the head, but did little damage, if any. This didn't stop Donnie from striking out at joints and other vulnerably parts of the body, but while he did this, he noticed that dust swirled from the tip of his staff. Checking the staff, he saw that it had been worn down.

"That complicates things." he said. He had at least gained the attention of the big beast, giving Tyroth some well needed time to catch his breath. He jumped onto the back of the beast, holding onto the head with a strong grip. The beast furiously tried to free himself from the dragon, but Tyroth had him in a vice grip. Tyroth strengthened his grip and forcibly twisted the head until he heard the cracking sound of the neck snapping. The beast became completely limp and collapsed.

"Thanks for the help, Donnie."

"No problem."

They were just about to go and help the others when they saw the body started smoking. Several pillars of thick black smoke rose as the body seemingly disintegrated before their eyes, leaving only the tattered clothes behind.

"Okay... that's creepy." said Tyroth.

* * *

Leo and his group had their hands full fighting the third beast. The whips actually changed their length, growing longer when needed, but the mutants were agile enough do avoid them. Unfortunately they were unable to get close enough.

"This ain't working." said Raph.

"We must get rid of the whips somehow." said Leo.

"I have an idea." said Mona "Mikey, follow my lead."

Mona rushed at the beast, who reacted by trying to stab her with his left whip. As it came at her, Mona ducked, opening her fans and letting the whip travel through the gaps between the metal blades. She then closed the fans between the blade-like growths on the whip and held the it in place. She was careful not to get cut on the sharp edges.

Once Mikey saw what Mona did he rushed in and jumped over the other whip, which was headed for Mona. Mid-jump he wrapped his nunchaku around the whip and pulled it away from his sister. Now both whips were useless, for the moment at least.

Leo quickly moved towards the beast. The reflection of the moonlight on his swords flashed beautifully as he cut off the whips as close as to the source as he dared go. The creature recoiled back at the lose of most of the whips, Raph took advantage of this, charging the beast and stabbing it in the head with both sais. Before Raph could pull out his sais, the beast disintegrated, leaving only some tattered clothes and pillars of black smoke.

* * *

The horned beast unleashed another burst of spike-filled fire at Sephie, but she deftly dodged every attack. Taking a quick look around, the beast saw that his comrades had perished and that the mutants, plus Casey, had formed a half circle in front of him.

"That is enough!" said a voice behind the horned creature. There stood a tall and slim, yet muscular creature. It had bird-like feet and inverted knees, sharp blade-like claws extending from the lower arms. A fish fin-like growth on the head resembled a mohawk, a pair of tusks in the corners of the mouth complemented the other shark-like teeth. The eyes were black as coal and reflected little to no light. Black leather armor consisting of spiked shoulder pads, a sleeveless cuirass and loincloth were a sharp contrast to the sickly pale skin.

"I gave the three of you one chance for revenge. One chance! And you failed."

The horned beast hurried over to the new creature, while the gang stood their ground, ready to both attack and withdraw.

"It wasn't our fault," the horned one pleaded "but if we combine our strengths, we can still destroy them."

"Combining our strengths? What an interesting idea." The new beast lifted the horned one by the neck, almost choking him. Black smoke poured from the horned beast, being absorbed by the other one. As the horned beast desperately tried free himself, he became more and more human, revealing to the shocked team the identity of the beast. It was the same spike-haired Purple Dragon they beat up yesterday. Despite now being fully human, the smoke continued to pour from him into the other creature, and as it did he started to shrivel. Mere seconds latter he was nothing more than dried skin and bones, completely lifeless. Once the smoke had stopped, the beast dropped the body which fractured and turned to dust when it hit the ground.

"Very interesting indeed." he turned his gaze to the gang "I have no real quarrel with you, but you have proven to be a potential danger to our plans, so you must be slain. Nothing personal." A ball of shadows formed in the palm of his right hand and started to rotate violently.

The gang jumped out of the way when the sphere was thrown at them. It hit a streetlight behind them and expanded to a disc, over five feet in diameter, that spun at an incredible speed and shredded the streetlight into tiny metal flakes.

"What the shell have you gotten us into this time, Casey?!" Raph shouted.

**Cliffhanger. I'm starting to see why they're used so often, it's actually rather fun to leave the audience hanging. Anyway, be on the look out for the next chapter.**


	6. Chapter 6

**Ancient Legacy**

**Chapter 6**

The strange new beast lunged at the gang, the blades now extended. He slashed at Donnie, who were the closest. Donnie managed to jump out of the way and saw how the missed attack left a deep cut in the asphalt.

"What the shell is that thing?!" he asked when he landed.

"A demon." said Tyroth.

"How do you know that?" asked Sephie.

"I don't know, I just... know."

"Can we discuss this later and focus on surviving for now?" said Leo. And he did indeed need to focus on his survival, as the beast/demon now charged right at him. Leo managed to parry the slashes with his swords, but he could not counterattack. The demon had unleashed a flurry of strikes against him, so Leo had to stay defensive to avoid being injured. It took everything he had to keep up, one wrong move, even a tiny one, could mean the difference between life and death.

One of the blades were caught mid-attack by a sai, Raph had rushed to his brother's aid and attempted to stab their foe with his last sai. But the demon disengaged the two turtles, jumping backwards. He stood there, watching them for a moment, then he spewed green fire filled with spikes at them. Leo and Raph easily avoided the attack, jumping out of its way.

Sephie readied another arrow and took aim at the demon's head. The arrow flew through the air at it's intended target, it seemed like it would hit dead on. However, the demon noticed the new attacker and cut down the arrow mid-flight with his left blade and simply smiled at the attempt. Sephie gritted her teeth.

The rest of the team charged their adversary, Sephie switched to her daggers and followed her friends. Donnie took a swipe at the demon, barely missing as it dodged. Casey and Mikey attacked from both sides, trying to box him in, while Mona went for the throat. The beast jumped over his attackers and landed face to face with Tyroth and had to dodge a strong right hook. A strong kick hit Tyroth in his stomach causing him to take a few steps backwards.

The demon prepared to lunge straight at Tyroth's chest, blades first, but was interrupted when Sephie engaged him with her daggers. Slashing, cutting and stabbing at him, Sephie tried to score a hit, but her short daggers didn't give her the reach she needed. Her attack proved useful as a distraction however, as Mona, Leo and Raph managed to get close enough from behind to attack. Before he had time to avoid them, the three mutants had already scored a few hits. Raph had stabbed him in the left side of his stomach and Leo was able to cut deep into his right arm. As the demon turned to jump, Mona succeeded at slashing his throat.

He staggered backwards and the gang thought the battle was over, but something was not right. The beast still stood grinning, despite that the cut on his throat was a fatal wound. That's when some of them noticed it. The wounds were not bleeding, they couldn't even see any kind of blood at all.

Taking advantage of their initial confusion, the beast leaped over most of them. His target was Casey. He raised his right blade, aiming to cut Casey in half. The human vigilante reacted by trying to parry with his bat. The attack was interrupted by Tyroth who tackled the demon midair, but the blade still cut Casey's bat in two like it was made of paper.

Rolling on the ground, the demon quickly got back on his feet only to get hit again. Mikey had hit the demon straight in the chest with a jump kick and whirled his nunchaku at the beast, striking the upper parts of the body several times. The demon retaliated by slashing at the orange-masked turtle, forcing Mikey to withdraw. However, the last attack managed to hit Mikey, a small cut on his right upper arm, no worse than a small paper cut, yet it hurt surprisingly much.

All of a sudden, Mikey just collapsed, while the demon positioned himself to drive his blades into Mikey's throat. His friends became terrified and rushed to his aid. Tyroth, being the closest, made it to Mikey first, punching the demon hard in the face, sending him flying quite a distance.

Donnie knelt by his fallen brother, he was pale and sweated a lot, his body felt very hot, like he had a fever. What worried Donnie the most however, was the dark lines that had appeared around the cut, and they were slowly spreading.

Leo, Raph and Tyroth placed themselves between the demon and Mikey, while Mona, Sephie and Casey stood by Donnie's side. Getting back on his feet once again, the demon growled at the mutants. Leo, Raph and Tyroth kept their eyes on their foe, ready to attack. The turtles tightened the grip on their weapons, while the dragon clenched his fists. After a few seconds of silence, the three mutants and the demon charged at each other.

Raph lunged at the demon with his sais, but missed when his target sidestepped. Jumping at the demon, Leo attempted to slash at the head. Seeing this, the demon ducked and rolled forward, causing Leo to jump over him. Quickly back on his feet, the demon was forced to once again duck, as Tyroth tried to punch him with his right fist. Now well withing reach, the demon ran his right blade through the left side of Tyroth's stomach.

The grin on his face was replaced with a shocked expression, when Tyroth grabbed him by both wrists and held him in place, still with one of the blades in the stomach.

"Leo! Now!" Tyroth shouted, to which Leo charged at the demon again. Preforming a scissor-like motion with his swords, he separated the squirming demon's head from the body. It had barely touched the ground before it and the body started to disintegrate with black smoke following. Tyroth quickly removed the blade impaling him and the wound started to heal, like always.

The three mutants hurried over to the others, worried about Mikey.

"How is he, Donnie?" asked Leo.

"Not well. He's burning up. We must get him back to the lair. Casey, go home and get April, tell her to bring what medical equipment she has and meet us back at the lair." said Donnie.

"I'm on it, Donnie." said Casey as he started running back to his apartment.

The mutants climbed down a nearby manhole into the sewers. Tyroth picked up Mikey after Donnie and Leo had lowered him down. He was strong enough to carry him and still keep up with the rest of the gang. It was the fastest way, and time might be something that Mikey doesn't have.

One thought was one everybody's mind as they ran through the sewers.

'Hang in there, Mikey.'

**Poor Mikey, hope he'll be alright. For answers regarding his fate, check the next chapter.**


	7. Chapter 7

**Ancient Legacy**

**Chapter 7**

"Hurry! We might not have much time!" said Donnie as he and Tyroth headed to the medical room with Mikey.

"What is all this commotion?" asked Splinter, just leaving his room after some meditation. He stopped dead in his tracks when he saw Tyroth carrying Mikey.

"No! Michelangelo! What has happened?"

Leo answered his master's question by explaining what they had encountered earlier. Moments later, April and Casey arrived with a large bag of medical supplies. April quickly joined Donnie in the medical room, passing Tyroth when he exited the room.

* * *

They worked for over an hour, taking blood samples, testing various medications and over all taking care of Mikey. The others outside were very worried and with reason, but all they could do was wait and pray. Eventually, Donnie came out of the room, his expression was sad and very tired.

"How is he, my son?" asked Splinter.

"He's stable for now, but nothing we tried worked. Honestly I don't know what to do. At least he's not getting any worse at the time." said Donnie.

"How could one scratch do so much?" asked Mona.

"Poison. Or more accurately a cross between poison and a virus or similar. The creatures blades were probably coated with it. And it seems to be self-replicating, at least some extent." said Donnie.

"Lucky for you that you were immune to it." said Raph to Tyroth.

"But, I'm **not** immune to poison or the like."

"Wait, what?" asked Donnie when he heard that.

"Unless it's a very weak poison I'm always affected by it, but I recover from it faster than it can harm me thanks to my healing rate. If there was poison on those blades, it didn't affect me at all, because if one tiny scratch of it affected Mikey as it did, I should have felt something too."

"But if you're healing ability didn't protect you, what did?" said Donnie. He started to think for a while, going over the information he had.

"Tyroth, I need a new blood sample from you." he said "I think it might have something we can use."

Tyroth nodded and followed Donnie into the lab. Meanwhile the rest of the group went to see Mikey. It hurt to see him like this, pale and sweating, tossing and turning in a feverish nightmare-filled sleep. The black lines around the wound had spread to cover at least one quarter of his upper body. April had just given him a shot with morphine to ease the pain, at least a little. As of now, that was the only thing they could do.

"I wish we could do more for him." she said "Where's Donnie, by the way?"

"He's in his lab." said Leo "Doing some new tests. He might need some help with it, though."

"We will take turns in watching over Michelangelo, so you can go and help him, if you want." said Splinter.

"Okay."

* * *

After ten minutes, the group left Mikey to allow him to rest, if possible. Only one remained by his side to watch over him.

Raphael.

"Hang in there, Mikey. Don't you dare die on us. We got two of the smartest people in the world working on something that will help you, just hold out until they're finished." he said.

"I know that I don't say this to you often enough. Shell, I don't even think that I've actually said it before, but..." he paused and took a deep breath.

"I love you, little brother. No matter how angry I get at you, how much I yell at you or hit you, I'll always love you Mikey. So please stay with us, life wouldn't be the same without you."

Raph turned around and saw Mona standing in the door way. She had a gentle and caring smile.

"Mona? I can..." was all Raph managed to say before Mona silenced him by gently placing a finger on his lips.

"You don't have to say anything, love, I understand." she said. "You aren't always as tough as you want everyone to think, I know this better than anyone else. You have a very soft and caring side too, all you've done for me is proof of that, and it's nothing you should be ashamed of."

Mona embraced her mate in a hug, and after a short moment, Raph returned the hug.

"We'll make it through this, honey. All of us, together."

"...thanks babe."

* * *

Hours passed and Mikey's condition had changed very little, but not for the better. Even though the poison wasn't spreading anymore, it had done quite some damage to Mikey, and while it still was in his system, his body could not recover at all. Donnie and April worked hard in the lab, trying to find the answer to Tyroth's immunity, hoping that it could help them save Mikey.

Tests, tests and even more tests were conducted and the long work was starting to take its toll on both Donnie and April. They kept going only by sheer willpower and coffee, a lot of coffee, of which Sephie brought some more for them.

"How's the progress?" Sephie asked.

"Next to nonexistent, I'm afraid." Donnie said, rubbing his tired eyes as he looked up from his microscope. Sephie offered him a new cup of coffee, which he gladly accepted.

"Donnie. I think I've found something." said April from the other side of the lab.

"I'll be right over. Thanks for the coffee, Sephie."

"No problem. I'll let the two of you continue your work."

* * *

Another hour passed and some among the inhabitants had fallen asleep. The lair was very quiet, until...

"Eureka! We've found it!" The shout was enough to alert those who were still awake and wake all who slept, apart from Casey who continued to snore in the couch. That will say, until Raph woke him up by shaking him. They all quickly made their way over to the lab.

"Hey everyone! Watch this!" said Donnie as soon as the others had entered the lab. An image appeared on a large screen, showing red and white blood-cells and some familiar smaller dark-red cells.

"Tyroth's blood, right?" said Leo, to which Donnie nodded. He then pressed a few buttons and the image was enlarged several times, revealing hundreds of super-tiny white particles of some sort.

"What's that?" asked Sephie.

"That, is what protected Tyroth against the poison. They've been in his bloodstream this whole time. The reason they were so hard to find is that they're very small, even by microscopic measurements, as you can see." said Donnie.

April pressed a few buttons on the computer and the image changed. Now it showed only the normal red and white blood-cells, but they were more grayish in color and several small black cells were attached to them.

"This is sample of Mikey's blood," she said "I don't think I have to explain what the black cells are. Anyway, we were able to extract some of these from Mikey, and when we introduced them to Tyroth's blood, well, you'll see soon enough."

She pressed a few more buttons and the image shifted back to the previous one. Donnie took a small syringe filled with water containing some of the poison, he added a tiny drop to Tyroth blood sample. The monitor showed how the black cells were violently attacked by the much smaller white ones, the attack could be compared with a shoal piranhas attacking a piece of meat. Mere seconds later, the invading cells were completely shriveled and harmless.

"It should also work the other way around," said Donnie "they won't fix the damage but they'll get rid of the poison. Then Mikey should only require some rest and he'll good as new in a few weeks."

"Then what are we waiting on?" asked Casey "Give him a shot of that miracle cure and we can all relax again."

"'Give him a shot'?! We can't just 'give him a shot'! We're talking about curing Mikey, a turtle mutated by waste chemicals from alien experiments, who's been poisoned by a possibly demonic poison, by injecting him with counter-cells extracted from Tyroth, a human mutated into a dragon by a well of unknown origins! Who knows what side effects it might have if the dose is to large?!" Donnie yelled. He took a few deep breaths and calmed down.

"Sorry, too little rest and too much coffee." he said. "We must do more tests to make sure that it's harmless for Mikey before we try it. Might need some more blood from you, Tyroth."

"Give the word and you'll get it."

"Great. Also, I'd like to get a new sample from you too, Sephie."

"Huh? Why me?"

"I got a theory that I'd want to check, but it's not important right now."

* * *

Yet another hour passed, and Donnie and April were very busy trying to find the right mix of Tyroth's 'guard cells' to be able to neutralize the poison without harming Mikey even more. They were just as thorough with making sure the dose wouldn't be to large as well as not being to small, either of those cases could be hazardous to the already weak turtle.

Eventually, they had a mixture that they were rather optimistic about, but the final test was trying it on Mikey, and they prayed that they had got it right. Mikey still lay in the bed in the medical room, still tossing and turning. He was now connected to a heart monitor, which showed that his pulse was higher than normal, though under the current situation, that was understandable.

Everyone were gathered in the room and waited anxiously for good results. Donnie took the syringe containing the mixture and walked over to his younger brother. He hoped that they had got the mixture right, but they could not wait much longer. Every hour Mikey had grown weaker, slowly but steady, there was no real telling just how much longer it would be before his body would give up. With this in mind, he positioned the needle just over Mikey's left arm, he looked to his sensei, who nodded in return.

He gave Mikey the shot, emptying the syringe and pulling it out. Then they waited. Nothing happened, not at first anyway. Mikey's heart rate started climbing to dangerous heights and he started shaking. Donnie and April had to hold him down so he didn't hurt himself as he flailed around. Just as suddenly as it started rising, his heart rate began to drop, returning to a more normal level. He stopped shaking and started breathing calmly, his color returned to him and the dark lines faded away.

Mikey opened his eyes, everything was a bit blurry. He could hear someone talking, but couldn't hear what was said or even who it was. Trying to focus on the voice, he was able to make out the words 'it worked', in a rather excited and happy tone. Slowly everything got clearer and Mikey saw his entire family and his friends standing around him, they looked very tired but relieved for some reason.

"What's going on?" he asked.

"You don't remember?" Leo asked in return.

"The last thing I remember is some thing with swords on its arms. Or was that a dream?"

"No it wasn't, you got poisoned by it. We'll tell you more later, for now we need to make sure that you're alright. How are you feeling?" said Donnie.

"Like if Hun danced on me, wearing golf shoes and carrying weights. After beating me at football, and I was the ball."

Donnie and April gave Mikey a quick check up. Besides that he was rather weak, his readings were okay and there was no sign of the poison anymore. All Mikey needed right now was something to eat and some rest. Rest, something none in the lair had gotten for the entire night. Once Donnie felt secure regarding Mikey's health, they all went to bed. All but Tyroth, who had decided to stay with Mikey, partly to keep him company and tell him what had happened, and partly to watch over him, just in case. He also brought a bowl of chocolate ice cream to the young turtle, returning the favor from last year.

**That was a close call for Mikey, but he made it. Next time, well... We'll just see what happens then, 'cause I'm not sure. I make things up as I go on, it's kinda automatic.**


	8. Chapter 8

**Ancient Legacy**

**Chapter 8**

Sephie woke up somewhere around five the next afternoon. She had slept on the couch, for she'd let April and Casey use the room she and Tyroth were borrowing. Sephie didn't mind though, the couch was more comfortable than the bed they had back in Mutopia. They seriously needed to get a new mattress, but that was not easily done as the inhabitants of Chicago had gotten a lot better at recycling, hence less things they could salvage. Good for nature, but less good for them.

Stretching a bit, she looked around and saw that Tyroth was nowhere to be found. She wasn't sure if he was up or still sleeping somewhere.

'Maybe he fell asleep over with Mikey.' she thought and walked over to the medical room. Inside, Mikey slept peacefully, looking a lot healthier than before, with his cat Klunk sleeping on his stomach. But there was still no sign of Tyroth. There was however, a folded note on the chair that Tyroth was last seen sitting on. Sephie picked up the note and read it.

'Have gone topside for some air, need to clear my head after yesterdays incidents. Will be careful not to get spotted, and have my shell-cell with me. Tyroth'

'Topside? At this time of the day? The sun's still up.' Sephie thought. 'I sure hope that you're careful, love, because I do not want to break you out from some government laboratory.'

* * *

Tyroth stood on top of one of the taller buildings, basking in the sunlight. He had almost forgotten how warm the sun's rays were, but he couldn't stand around sunbathing all day, the risk of being seen was too great. Luckily for him, this specific building had the edges lined with gargoyles of varying forms, so all he had to do to hide was to crouch and avoid moving to much. He had never been very fond of these kind of sculptures, but now they proved to be an excellent camouflage, next to nobody would notice an extra figure on the roof. Turns out, that if you hang around with ninja mutants, you're bound to pick up on a few things.

Now that he was hidden, relatively speaking, he could focus on the questions that perplexed him.

Why was he immune to the demonic poison? Why were they attacked by a demon? Where did it come from? And how did Tyroth know that it was a demon in the first place? The last question plagued him the most. He didn't guess, nor did he draw any conclusions based on what happened yesterday, he just knew that it was a demon, like if he had met one before. But he had no memory of such an event, you would expect to remember something like that.

Thinking about it for a short while, he did remember something. After Splinter had taught him meditation last year, he had a strange nightmare followed by an equally strange vision when he tried to use meditation to understand the dream. A vision of a dark figure of some sort.

'I suppose some more meditation might be able to jog my memory, or something, maybe,' he thought 'but not here and not now. Don't want to risk getting seen, or fall of the edge. It hurts to hit the pavement below.'

He stood up and backed into the shadows and was just about to head over to the alleyway he exited the sewers from earlier, when something in the distance caught his attention. Something was flying over the buildings two or three blocks ahead of him, but wasn't any kind of vehicle or animal Tyroth recognized, in fact, it seemed to roughly his size.

'What is that? Another mutant? Or maybe yet another demon?' he wondered.

Tyroth's curiosity got the better of him as he decided to follow the unknown flyer. It eventually landed on the roof of another building and Tyroth followed, silently landing behind the water tower on the far side of the roof. Looking around the corner of the tower, Tyroth was able to get a good look at the now clearly masculine flyer.

He was of similar build as Tyroth, with clawed hands and feet and scale like skin and a tail. But that's were the similarities ended. The skin was colored gray, the head resembled that of a vulture or condor with a long, sharp serrated beak and yellow eyes. His tail split into two after half its length, both ending a pointed tip. The wings however, caught Tyroth's eyes, nearly identical to his own aside from one thing, they were upside down. How he was able to fly with wings like that was a mystery, but reminded Tyroth about a small thing he had to do.

Wanting to talk to this stranger, Tyroth folded his wings behind his back, hiding them so he'd look less intimidating. No need to start a fight if one could be avoided. Despite this, his gut told him that it was a bad idea to reveal himself, and he was almost sure that it was not another mutant he was dealing with.

"Hello." he said as he stepped out of hiding. The vulture-like creature turned around and his eyes widened.

"What are you?" he asked with a scratchy voice, clearly confused over Tyroth's appearance.

"I was just about to ask you the same thing." answered Tyroth as he walked a little closer.

"You are not of our kind, but you are far different from other mortals." the vulture said.

"Mortals? Your kind? Then my hunch was right, you are a demon, aren't you?"

"You know of us? That complicates things. This must be corrected." said the vulture, walking even closer. "This will be quick, but painful." he said and jabbed his clawed hand into Tyroth's chest, making him let out an 'ouch'. The wound was not deep, the claws only penetrated little more than a centimeter.

The winged duo stood like statues for about a minute, the vulture still with his claws imbedded in Tyroth's chest.

"Um... is something supposed to happen?" Tyroth asked, if only to break the rather awkward silence.

"You should be dead by now. Why aren't you affected by the taint?"

"Taint? You mean the poison?"

The vulture pulled out his claws and backed away a few feet, not even noticing that the wounds on Tyroth healed before his eyes.

"If the taint won't kill you, I'll just have to rip your heart out!" he said, getting into a battle-stance. Tyroth responded by readying himself for battle as well, unfolding his wings so that he could fight with full mobility. This shocked the vulture.

"Wings?! Your appearance... it is that of a dragon. But that can't be, they're all extinct." he said, backing away. "This changes everything. I must return immediately and report this."

The vulture quickly leaped of the building and flew away.

"Hey! Get back here!" Tyroth shouted and was about to follow him, when he hear a familiar sound. Turning around he saw a helicopter, and it was getting a little too close.

"Shit! Talk about bad timing." He quickly made his way down into the alleyway behind the building, luckily it was empty. He then continued down into the sewers and started walking towards the lair.

'What the hell was he talking about?' Tyroth wondered as he walked. 'How many more of those things are there? It seemed like they're somewhat organized, and that's bad news. But what did he say, that dragons were extinct. That would mean that at some point in the past, there actually lived dragons somewhere. This is giving me a headache, I hope that the others can help me sort this out.'

**A lot of questions were asked and none was answered, instead we got more questions. Not bad for a rather short chapter. At least Mikey's better.**


	9. Chapter 9

**Ancient Legacy**

**Chapter 9**

Donnie walked out of his room, haven just woken up and wanting to check on Mikey. As he walked over to the med-room, something slightly moist fell on top of his head. Picking up whatever object that hit him, he saw that it was a banana-peel. He was quite puzzled to how a banana-peel could fall on him inside the lair.

"Oops. Sorry, Donnie." said a voice from above. Donnie looked up and saw Sephie standing upside down in the roof, holding a pen and a magazine.

"Sephie? What are you doing up there?" Donnie asked.

"Well, I could say that I'm just hanging around, but I'm actually trying to solve this crossword-puzzle. Do you know another eight-letter word for turtle, with two 'R' between the beginning and middle?"

"Two 'R', hmm. Try 'terrapin'."

"Terrapin, huh? Let's see... Yeah, that's the one. Thanks."

"No problem. If you don't mind me asking, why are you up in the ceiling?"

"I simply like being upside down every once in a while, it gives a new perspective. And it's very rarely as crowded as the floor can be."

"Okay... and the banana-peel?"

"I wanted something to eat, so I took a banana. Then I accidentally dropped the peel, I thought that I had a better grip on it with my tail than I had. Could you back away, just a little, I'm coming down."

She dropped down from the ceiling, turning in the air and landing face to face with the purple-masked turtle as effortlessly as if she had only jumped from the lowest step of a staircase.

"Like being upside-down, huh?"

"I like climbing on any surface, it gives a sense of zero gravity, or something... It's awesome either way, I love this body. 'sigh' But I would gladly trade it to be able to be together with my family again." The last part was said with a rather sad tone.

"I don't blame you, but speaking of families, how's Mikey doing?"

"He's fine, as far as I can tell. He's at least looking healthier than he did yesterday. But you might wanna check him for yourself, just the same."

"That's actually what I was going to do, when I was interrupted by falling peels. Anyway, where's Tyroth? Haven't seen or heard him yet."

Sephie handed Donnie the note Tyroth left, it was quicker than telling Donnie herself.

"He went topside? I sure hope he's careful, but I suppose he knows how to take care of himself."

"That he does, but it doesn't make me any less worried about him."

* * *

Roughly half an hour later, everyone in the lair was up and about, even Mikey, if a bit wobbly. He was still weak but recovering nicely. They all sat in the kitchen, eating breakfast, when Tyroth returned.

"About time you showed up." said Raph "We were almost starting to get worried."

"I had a few questions that needed to be straightened out, some time high up helps." Tyroth responded.

"So, how did it go? Any answers?" asked Sephie.

"Not even one." Tyroth said as he sat down by the table. "Only more questions, courtesy of what I ran into topside." This caught the attention of everyone at the table, and they weren't exactly pleased when Tyroth told them that there was another demon running around.

"I tried to talk peacefully with him, but as soon as I gave away that I knew of demons, he attacked me."

"Then we can assume that trying to reason with them is out of the question." said Leo.

"Suits me just fine." said Raph, and Casey nodded in agreement.

"The thing that bothers me the most about that meeting, however, is that he said something about dragons being extinct."

"Dragons extinct?" said April "Wouldn't that mean that there were dragons once?"

"That's what I think as well. And not only that, but it seems like the demons, or at least this one, fears dragons for some reason. And I can't shake the feeling that I know more about this whole mess than I should. It's like having amnesia, but different somehow. I can't make heads or tails out of any of this, and it's giving me a headache."

"Tell us more of the actual attack, maybe we can figure this out together." said Leo.

"It wasn't much of an attack, he just jabbed me in the chest with his claws. Apparently he thought that something he called the 'taint' would kill me."

"Taint? Did he mean the same poison that Mikey was infected with?" asked Mona.

"I believe so, yes, and from the sound of the guy, it seems that it is common among them. Not to mention that it sounded like it's supposed to kill instantaneously."

"But, it didn't kill me. Right? Or am I a ghost?!" asked Mikey rather nervous. Raph whacked his younger brother over the back of his head, not as hard as he usually does, but still hard enough for it to hurt a little.

"Nope, too solid to be a ghost." said Raph.

"Whew. Thanks, I think." said Mikey rubbing the back of his head.

"Mikey's got a point, though." said Sephie "We know why Tyroth survived it, but not why Mikey survived. No offense Mikey."

"No problem."

"The only reason that I can think of is that we might be slightly resistant because we're mutants." said Donnie. "So it's almost logical to assume that, had we been human, we'd be dead as soon as the poison enters or bloodstream."

"Then, we were very lucky during the battle last night, in more ways than one, especially you Casey." said Leo.

"No kidding. I really dodged a bullet that time."

"Speaking of blood and poison, wasn't there some something you wanted to check with my blood, Donnie?" asked Sephie.

"I'd almost forgotten about that. Once we're done here, we'll get to that."

"What are you up to now, Donnie?" asked Raph.

"You'll see." Donnie answered.

"Um... do we even know what these things want?" Mona asked.

"From what I'm able to make out, I doubt that they're friendly." said Tyroth.

"What do you think about this, master? You've been quiet so far." said Leo.

"Much about these creatures remain unknown to us." Splinter started. "And I fear that we have to fight them eventually, but without the proper knowledge, that would be disastrous. We must find more information about them."

"So... how do we do that?" asked Casey.

"If I only could get out more from my mind, maybe I'd know how to deal with them." said Tyroth. "I just know that I know that, but it keeps eluding me."

"There might be a way to help you." said Splinter, gaining everyone's attention. "Through an advanced form of meditation, it is possible that I could enter your mind and help you find the answers that you seek."

"It's worth a try, at least." said Tyroth.

"Then meet me in my room, and we will start. As for you, my students, considering the task ahead of us and the fact that Michelangelo has not recovered enough yet, todays training session will have to be postponed."

"Understood master." said Leo. "We should use the time to do some research, there might be something about the demons in the lore of old."

"Well, it sure beats sitting on our shells while we wait." said Raph.

"I think we can help too." said April "I've got loads of old stuff in my antics shop, some of it might be magical, it wouldn't be the first time."

"Checking everything in the shop is gonna take quite some time." Mona remarked.

"I've planned to take a proper inventory of it anyways, might as well do so now. Besides, Casey's helping me."

"I am?" Casey asked, but quickly corrected himself when he met April's now stern gaze. "I mean, of course I am."

"If you guys check the books and antics, I'm gonna check my video-games. There are demons in some of them." said Mikey.

"That's probably the most stupid idea you've ever..."

"That's actually a good idea, Mikey." said Leo, cutting Raph of.

"It is!?" both Raph and Mikey said, very confused.

"Leo's right." said Donnie. "Even though game-developers most likely have taken many liberties when making the demons in the games, they're probably based on something more solid, like old myths and stories. The odds of finding anything useful is about the same as with any book we have. If nothing else, they might give us something to go on."

* * *

With their night planned, the gang split up and started their projects.

April and Casey headed back home for some long hours of cataloging.

Donnie returned to his lab and began examining Sephie's blood sample.

Leo, Raph and Sephie took it upon themselves to go through the older books they had in search of useful information, they also used a laptop to search the Internet as well.

Mikey had mixed emotions about playing video-games at the moment. One part of him wanted to play instead of training, or anything else boring, but another part was disturbed about Leo letting him play, something that has never happened before under such circumstances. Regardless, he did play, a lot. Mona was with him and made sure that he didn't get too sidetracked, while keeping notes on interesting things about the demons in the games.

Splinter was preparing some incenses in his room when Tyroth entered.

"Are you ready?" the old rat asked. Tyroth simply nodded in response.

"Then let us begin."

**Things are starting to heat up a bit, and we're not even halfway through the story yet. At least I hope not, would be rather underwhelming if I can't make at least another fifteen chapters. Here's to hoping that I manage to pull that of. :)**


	10. Chapter 10

**Ancient Legacy**

**Chapter 10**

Splinter and Tyroth sat opposite of each other, as the slightly musky scent of incenses filled Splinter's room.

"So, what should I do?" asked Tyroth.

"Not very much, most of the work fall upon me, as I am the one who will be entering your mind. Just do as you normally do when you meditate, then you will have to lower your mental barrier."

"I have one of those?"

"We all have barriers of varying strengths. They protect our minds from intruders and because of that, it is not easy to lower them."

"Then, how do I do it?"

"When you are meditating, try visualizing your barrier as a wall, then picture an opening in it, a door or gate. Focus on opening it and do not resist when you feel my presence. It may not work on the first try, but I have confidence in your abilities. Once I am in your mind, focus on me and the link should stabilize."

* * *

It took some time, but eventually Tyroth managed to visualize a wall in his mind.

"What the heck is this?!" he asked himself as he looked around in his mind. The normally black area was now a grassy field with a large stone wall stretching from the right horizon to the left. He had been in his mind several times, but it always looked the same, it had never changed before.

"Hmm. I suppose that it would shape itself after my will. It is my mind after all, and that makes me a bit worried. Now what, oh right, a door."

Tyroth closed his eyes and concentrated on the image of a door in the wall. When he opened his eyes, there was a door in the wall. Granted, the door wasn't large enough for anything other than an average mouse, but it was a door none the less. Scratching the back of his head, Tyroth closed his eyes a second time and wanted the door to be larger. He opened his eyes again and this time the door was larger, much larger. It was at least twenty meters wide and fifty meters tall. Tyroth did a face palm, as well as a mental note about being very specific about what he wants in his mind.

Not really bothering with changing the door, Tyroth focused on opening it instead. Slowly, the door swung ajar with a typical creaking sound. After a short time, he felt the presence of someone waiting outside the wall. Tyroth focused all his attention on the presence, gently, just in case he'd accidentally do something potentiality dangerous towards it. The presence entered through the door.

"Splinter?" Tyroth asked.

"Yes, Tyroth, I am here."

"But where? I can feel that you're here, but I can't see you, only hear you."

"I am experiencing a similar predicament. I can not see anything at all."

"Okay... something is not quite right here."

"Indeed, but I am not sure what. The link is strong, so I do not believe that is the problem. It could be that your mind is too different for this kind of meditation."

"Great. Now what?"

"The purpose of this was to allow us to communicate during your meditation, since you are completely unresponsive at that time. While I can not see what you see, at least you can describe it for me."

"Well, it's better than nothing, I supposed. Where do we start?"

"That is for you to decide, it is your mind, after all."

"I was afraid you'd say that. This is gonna be a long night."

* * *

"Okay, so far whips, axes, knives and holy items work against demons, as does magic." said Mikey, rather proud over his progress.

"Not to burst your bubble, Mikey, but most of that is stuff we already know, and I have my doubts about holy water and the like. Magic, however, is a good bet, but it's not easy to find magical items." said Mona.

"But it's not impossible, we've seen several things before. Wonder if the Daimyo would be willing to lend us his war staff?"

"I don't know if that's such a good idea. Leo said something about it rejecting those it finds unworthy, or worse."

"No need to worry, sis. Remember that I'm the Battle Nexus Champion!" Mikey said as he stood up in a heroic pose, which was quickly interrupted when a thrown pillow hit him in the back of his head.

"Tell that ego of yours to pipe down Mikey! Some of us are trying to work around here!" shouted Raph.

"You're just jealous." Mikey responded.

"Watch it, Mikey! There are only so many soft items here, eventually I'll throw a book at you, a large one!"

Mona giggled at the two turtles bickering. Aside from the almost imminent threat of demons, things were back to the abnormal way she was used to.

"Found anything yet?" Leo asked, attempting to prevent a fight between his two brothers.

"Nothing other than the usual 'priest this' and 'exorcist that'." Raph complained as he returned to the book. "How about you?"

"More or less the same." Leo answered "Most of the demons in the old stories appear to be spirits, rather than physical beings. Those that have a physical form, however, seem to be capable of shape shifting. And nearly all can possess people, animals and even inanimate objects."

"Sounds troublesome."

"If you think that's bad, wait until you hear what I found on the web." said Sephie, as she started to read what she had found.

"'In folklore traced back to medieval legend, a **succubus** is a female demon or supernatural entity that appears in dreams, who takes the form of a human woman in order to seduce men. The male counterpart is the **incubus**.'"

"What harm would they do? Not that I'd like to meet one of them, but they seem mostly harmless." said Raph.

"Well, as far as I can tell, they would somehow brainwash their victims, turning them into obedient thralls."

"Okay, from now on, if anyone has a strange dream, we tell the others. No exceptions." said Leo

"Deal." Raph responded, while Sephie nodded in agreement.

* * *

"What do you see?" Splinters 'ghost' asked as Tyroth descended deeper into his mind.

"A memory of some sort, it's a bit fuzzy at the moment, though. Let's see if I can clear it up." The blurred surroundings became clearer almost on cue, and a familiar place took shape around Tyroth.

"I know this place." he said as he looked around in the dimly lit cavern he now stood in. "It's the cave back at Mutopia, where the well that mutated me is." He then noticed several figures standing nearby, next to said well.

One was a humanoid turtle with a wooden cane and dressed in what could best be described as a monks robes. The other two were human, one was a girl in her early twenties with long brown hair and greenish brown eyes, she wore blue jeans and a black top. All of her clothes were ripped, torn and burnt in several places and she had her left arm in a sling. There were also several band-aids and a few bandages visible here and there on her body.

The last human was a young man, slightly older than the girl, his body almost completely covered in bandages with dried bloodstains in a few places. Of what could be seen of his body, he had short dark-brown hair and hazelnut colored eyes, and would probably been quite handsome if he weren't so torn up. In the way of clothing, he wore only a large towel around his waist and he was sitting in an old wheelchair.

Tyroth didn't need long to recognize the three.

"That's me, and Sephie too, before we mutated. And Gramps is there too. This must be from when I drank from the well the first time and... uh-oh."

"What do you mean by that?" Splinter asked. But before Tyroth could answer, his human self had, with great trouble, knelt by the edge of the well and taken a mouthful of the crystal clear water.

"AAAAAUUUUGHHH!" the two Tyroth screamed at the same time, as the mutant fell to his knees while the human one started to heal. Bones were mended, torn muscles reattached and internal bleeding's closed, then the transformation began.

His size increased and his skin was replaced with with red scales. Nails grew into claws, horns sprouted on the back of his head and his face became more reptilian. New organs grew inside his body. The bones twisted, merged and separated as his anatomy changed, a tail grew out and a pair of wings erupted from his back.

When Tyroth opened his eyes and looked over at the well, he saw himself now transformed and Sephie laying in the well mutating and screaming in pain. He closed his eyes again, not able to witness her transformation and wished that he were somewhere else. Shortly after, he found himself in the dark space of his subconscious.

"What happened? Are you alright?" Splinter asked worried.

"Hard to tell." Tyroth groaned. "We were just in my memory of mine and Sephie's mutation, and I relived all the pain I felt back then. Hell, that hurt."

"When we first met, you told us of your transformation, but I did not think that the pain was that strong. For as long as my students and I have known you, pain has never affected you much. After what just happened, it is clear that the description you gave it was an understatement."

"Yeah, maybe. But there's no need to worry about me, just... give me a few moments and I'll be fine."

"If you relive sensations from your memories, you should be careful with what memory you choose to visit."

"Good idea. Let's just hope that I can navigate this maze of a mind good enough to stick to that plan."

* * *

After taking some time to gather his strength, Tyroth set out through his mind once again to find some clues about the demons. It wasn't long before he came before yet another familiar sight.

"Haven't seen this in a while." he said.

"Where are we now?" Splinter asked.

"Remember that dream slash vision I had last year? The one with a burning village and dragons flying above it?"

"Then maybe we can get some answers here. What more do you see?"

Tyroth scanned the entire village and soon noticed that there were several figure running around in the village that wasn't human, in fact only a few of them were even human-like. He instinctively knew what they were.

"There are demons attacking the village. I wonder if..." Tyroth didn't get to say anything more, as a deafening roar startled both him and Splinter. A large black dragon, with a menacing amount of bone-spikes swooped straight passed them, heading for the village. Fire rained on the village as the large dragon flew above it. But both the buildings and humans escaped the flames unharmed, only the demons were caught in the fire.

"That pretty much answers my question. The demons and dragons are not allies, they are more likely enemies instead."

"If they are ancient enemies, it would explain the reaction of the demon you met earlier today."

"It does, especially if the demons believe that dragons are extinct. But why haven't the demons returned earlier if the dragons are gone, why now? If the dragons were wiped out last time they fought, why didn't the demons stay?"

"Good questions, Tyroth. There is more to this conflict than we know of."

"Figures. More questions and no real answers. But I'm not leaving until I know where the dragons stand in all of this. So, let's see what we can find. This is gonna be a long night."

**Ending things of in the middle of a mind-trip. Not sure how much the plot actually advanced in this chapter, but hey, it still makes for good reading, I hope.**

**Anyway, next time, we dwell deeper into Tyroth's mind and hopefully get some answers. Don't get your hopes up though, I'm not sure what will come out of my mind. Got a basic idea, but the details are formed as I write.**

**Be seeing you all. :)**

**AN: For those that didn't guess it already, the particular game that Mikey was playing here, was from the Castlevania series. For those that did, have yourself a cookie.**


	11. Chapter 11

**Ancient Legacy**

**Chapter 11**

A ring of dark flames opened and a vulture-like creature exited into a realm of fire and obsidian. The place was filled with various creatures, some were very bestial in their appearance while others were almost ghost-like and others still were of a humanoid build. Regardless of the general form, nearly all of the creatures had horns, spikes or fire of different colors on their bodies, and none of them look even the least friendly.

The vulture hastily made his way through the other creatures, shoving some of them out of his way while avoiding others. After a short time he came to an area that the others avoided. A very large chamber with a tunnel leading further into the subterranean realm. On either side of the tunnel stood two giant suits of armor, easily twenty meters tall, both armed with an equally large halberd made of black fire, a similar fire also filled the suits instead of flesh and bones.

As the vulture got closer to the tunnel, the two guards blocked his way with their weapons.

"**Purpose."** one of the gargantuan guards demanded with a dark, thundering voice.

"I seek an audience with lord Xazahl. I bring urgent news." the vulture answered, backing away from the burning weapon. The guards eventually withdrew their weapons, but their gaze never left the vulture.

"**Pass."** they said and the vulture quickly made his way into the tunnel. It took him a few minutes before he came to a chamber that resemble a throne room. A figure, mostly obscured by a black cape stood with the back towards the entrance, observing something through a small ring of green fire. The vulture fell to his knees and bowed his head down low.

"You return already, Gomar?" the dark figure asked without turning around.

"Yes, my lord. And... I'm afraid that I bring ill news."

"Have you failed to learn the fate of Ulaimor? I believed that such a task would have been a simple matter. Was I mistaken?" Xazahl said as he turned around. He look surprisingly human, compared to the others. He was tall and competently bald with a sickly pale grayish white skin-color and long, black fingernails. The clothes he wore could best be described as something of elven design, completely black with red and purple details, trims and rune-like embroidery here and there. The eyes were blood-red with two vertical slits each for pupils and they were glowing malevolently.

"I think I know what happened to him, my lord, and that is the ill news." Gomar answered, still with his head bowed down.

"Continue."

"During my search for Ulaimor, I encountered a mortal that was not like the others. He was... part dragon."

"What?!"

"He looked like a dragon with scales, tail and wings but were shaped like a mortal. The taint had no effect on him and he know of our kind. I fear that he is responsible for Ulaimor's disappearance."

"There is not supposed to be any dragons left, they all died the last time we fought. I felt how the life-force of all of them faded away to nothingness."

"Maybe we should reconsider our plan, my lord."

"Out of the question! The plan will continue! Even if there is a few dragons left, formidable as they are, they will not be able to stop our overwhelming numbers. Once we can properly invade this world, any resistance will fall."

"And what of this dragon... man?"

"Take a few others with you and find this mortal. Eliminate him. We must not fail our Master."

"Yes, my liege." Gomar rose back up and left the throne room.

"Do you have doubts, general?" Xazahl asked another figure, who stood hidden in the shadows.

"Only in Gomar's ability to fight. He is but a scout, and will most likely not survive a battle against this strange mortal if he indeed have powers from the dragons." said the figure with a male voice.

"I am well aware of that, general, as a matter of fact, I am counting on it. The attack on this 'dragonman' will most likely draw out any other of his kind, regardless of the outcome. There will also be an observer following Gomar and his group, that will tell me just how powerful the mortal is. And should Gomar manage to kill his target, we will have one problem less to worry about. Either way, I will have answers. In the meantime, continue the search."

"Yes lord Xazahl." the general bowed and walked out of the shadows. He was clad in black armor with a few spikes here and there, a sword hanged on his left side and he had a pair of bat wings. His skin was dark-red in color and a pair of horns extended back over his head from his forehead. The eyes were yellow and the teeth sharp.

Once alone, Xazahl once again looked into the small ring of fire.

"Soon everything will be ready." he said grinning.

**A bit of a short chapter, even by my standards, and mostly a filler. But I felt that we needed a small break from the mutants, and getting to know the enemy a bit more seemed like a good idea.**

**Hope that our heroes can find something to help them, they're gonna need all the help they can get.**

**By the way, sorry for not sticking to what I said last time, but we will continue the travel through Tyroth's mind next chapter. Promise.**


	12. Chapter 12

**Ancient Legacy**

**Chapter 12**

Tyroth continued his search for answers in his mind, with Splinter as his guide. So far the trip had only yielded information regarding the vulture-like demon's hostility towards Tyroth. After a short while, they came to a stop.

"Where are we now, Tyroth?" Splinter asked.

"I'm not entirely sure, I haven't been here before as far as I can remember, but it looks a bit familiar. Wait a minute!"

"What is it?"

"This is the same place as before. The village, the hills, the forests, they're the same as in the other memory. But they seem different, almost... younger, for a lack of better words."

"Then this might be earlier than the attack you saw. Perhaps several years."

"Or even hundreds of years. This needs to be examined more closely."

* * *

Tyroth moved through the village like a ghost, completely invisible to the humans and able to pass through solid objects. Or at least that's how he felt, but this was nothing more than a vision. When passing through one of the buildings, he was met by a sight on the other side of it, that he did not expect.

The same black dragon from his previous vision was laying on the ground, swinging its tail a short distance over the ground, while a bunch of kids tried to hold on to it. And they were laughing. One of them, a girl, roughly five or six years, lost her grip and was thrown into a pile of hay unharmed and laughed even more, making the large dragon smile. This continued until all of the children were in the hay pile. Then the dragon walked away and started cutting the ground with its claws, effectively plowing the field.

Tyroth explained what he saw to Splinter, as events progressed.

"The dragons seem peaceful, or at least this one does." said Tyroth "Not like in many of the old folktales, where they're described as savage beasts."

"In parts of Asia, dragons are told to be respected creatures of great wisdom and general gentle in nature. Your description of the relation here seems to be closer to the eastern parts of the world rather than the western."

"Yeah, by the looks of things, they appear to be some form of guardians. If the other dragons are like this one, that is."

"If so, it is most likely that they defended the humans when the demons attacked."

"That explains the battle, but we still don't know why the demons attacked or where they came from."

"Maybe we should end this session now and continue at a later time, so we can discuss our findings with the others. And you could use some rest, it has been quite the strain on your mind."

"Not a bad idea."

Splinter's presence left Tyroth's mind on his own and the link between their minds was successfully severed, without any complications. Tyroth prepared to wake up as well, but just before he managed to leave his mind, an image flashed before his eyes. Far away, he could see a round object of some sort, with a faint white glow. It was surrounded by darkness, with several small faint lights here and there.

"Is that... the moon?" Tyroth asked himself, just before he woke up from the meditation. He found himself back in Splinter's room with the old rat still sitting in front of him.

"Is everything alright?" Splinter asked "You look confused."

"Not quite sure. Had a flash just before I woke up. Not sure what to make of it."

"Do tell."

* * *

"The moon? Hmm." the old rat pondered.

"That's what I thought as well. All these visions, memories and whatnot are giving me a headache. And I don't even know where they come from."

"In time you may discover why, but this last vision of yours, I am not certain what it means. But it could be a clue of some sort, maybe it will help you once you understand it."

"If so then I'm heading topside. I saw the moon rising earlier today, and it should be up by now." said Tyroth, as he got up and walked towards the door.

"Wait." said Splinter before Tyroth reached the door. "It is not certain that it was the moon you saw, you said so yourself, it could be something else."

"I know, Splinter, but if it is the moon then tonight is as good a time as it will be, as it is a full moon tonight. And if I'm wrong, then at least we'll know that, and if I'm lucky I might know what it is that I saw."

"True enough, my young friend, but should you not wait for the others?"

"Maybe I should, but I might be short on time on this. But I'm bringing my shell-cell, so you don't have to worry about me. I'll be back in an hour." Tyroth then left Splinter's room and headed for the surface.

"I always worry about you, Tyroth, you and Sephie are like family to us. Stay safe." said Splinter, now all alone in his room.

* * *

Tyroth stood on top of one of the tallest buildings he could find close to where he had surfaced. Even though it was almost midnight, it was still quite bright, which was not very surprising considering that it was almost summer. Luckily, the sky was clear and the white moon was easy to see. It had been almost an hour since Tyroth arrived at his lookout point, and the only thing he'd gotten so far was a slight ache in his neck.

'Nothing.' he thought ' Absolutely bloody, freaking nothing. With my luck, I probably have to see the moon from a specific angle, from a specific spot and during a specific day.' sigh 'Better head back and see if we can find another solution to this mystery.'

Tyroth spread his wings and jumped of the building, flying through the air, he headed back towards the lair.

He was suddenly and abruptly knocked out of the air when something hit him in the back. Desperately, he tried to regain control, but too late. He crashed into one of the buildings and fell down onto the one he just passed over. The crash, and the fall, took quite the toll on him. He had a massive headache, his eyesight was a bit blurry and he felt rather wobbly as he got back on his feet.

"We meet again, mortal." he heard a scratchy voice say. He looked to where the voice came from and saw a slightly blurred figure with what he guessed were wings. Tyroth easily put two and two together, it was the same vulture-like demon he'd met earlier, it had to be.

"I believe you dropped something." the demon said and held up something in his clawed hand. Tyroth was not sure what it was at first, but stiffened when he realized that he only had one thing that he could drop. His hand quickly searched after his shell-cell. Gone. He then heard the sound of something made out of metal and plastic being crushed and dropped on the ground.

"I do not know what it was, but I can tell from your reaction that it was important to you. Not that it matters, by order of my lord, you shall die tonight!"

"Ugh... is this really necessary?" Tyroth asked, holding his aching head with one hand. "I'm not sure what our ancestors fought about, but must we continue their war? Can't we discuss this without bloodshed?"

Tyroth got his answer, when the demon leaped at him. He barley managed to dodge the attack, still being rather groggy from the impact.

'Peaceful talks with these things are **definitively** out of the question now.' he thought to himself as he tried to put some distance between them. This fight was not going to be easy, but at least his eyesight had started to clear up a bit. Regardless of the circumstances, he was not going down without a fight.

As he readied himself for a tough fight, he heard the sound of wings flapping and feet landing on the rooftop. Taking a quick look around him, he could see five more figures of seemingly similar build to that of the vulture, though the details were lost due to his still fuzzy eyesight. Thinking about his odds of winning, one word came to mind.

"Shit."

**Things just went from bad to worse. Let's see how Tyroth fares against multiple demons, without backup.**

**I hope he survives.**


	13. Chapter 13

**Ancient Legacy**

**Chapter 13**

Tyroth ducked as one of the six demons jumped at him, he then stepped backwards as two more attacked him. With his eyesight still recovering, he had to rely on his other senses, mostly his hearing, to keep track of his opponents. So far he had managed to avoid them, but it was only a matter of time before they would score a hit. Luckily, his sight also became clearer each passing moment, could he only hold out long enough the odds would become better.

Pain shot through his left knee as one of the demons had kicked it from behind, causing him to loose his balance. These things hit hard and know where to hit for the most damage. One of the figures was approaching him very fast, probably lunged itself towards Tyroth. With his balance upset, Tyroth would easily fall if they collided. To avoid that, he bent backwards while grabbing onto the figure, where ever he could, and threw him over himself.

The counter worked, if only on that one. Another one had been right behind the first one and struck Tyroth in the stomach, causing the large dragon to fall backwards, hitting his head again. One of the demons pinned him down by standing on his chest.

"So, you were supposed to be a dragon? Pathetic." said the same voice from before. "If you are the strongest this world has to offer, then conquering it will be child's play."

"Don't count me out just yet, you oversized chicken!" Tyroth snarled.

"And what could you possibly do?" the vulture mocked as he bent down and grabbed Tyroth by the neck. "You may resemble a dragon, but that is all. What makes you believe that you can defeat us?"

"How about... this!" Tyroth shouted, releasing a torrent of fire straight in the face of his captor, who immediately covered his burnt face with his hands and cried out in pain.

Catching all of his attackers by surprise, Tyroth used the distraction to free himself and get back on his feet. Two of the demons quickly charged him before he could manage to get away, slashing at him with their sharp claws. The wounds were not deep, but the force of the attacks caused Tyroth to stumble backwards, then he fell. Not having paid enough attention to his surroundings, he had moved to close to the edge of the roof.

"Not again!"

Tyroth turned around and spread his wings completely, attempting to use the momentum to gain some more altitude once he'd leveled out. As he sped downwards, his sight finally returned, and not a moment too soon. Leveling out, he swooped barely a meter above the cars below, gaining the attention of the people that were still up at this time, and considering that it was Friday night, there were quite a lot, and almost all had a phone or camera. Not caring that he probably would show up on the news or something, he quickly turned upwards again, ready for round two.

* * *

Flying upwards, he saw that the demons had taken flight as well, meaning that this would be aerial combat. Tyroth was not unfamiliar with fighting from the air, but fighting another flyer in the air, that was something new.

The first one that dived at Tyroth was stopped by a flying uppercut and crashed into a fire escape. Tyroth continued his flight up dodging several attacks as he flew past the second and third demon. But he could not continue to climb in the air much longer. Using what momentum he had left, he delivered a full body tackle to the fourth demon, ramming him into the wall, Tyroth then used him as a springboard to launch himself of the side of the building.

With the last two of the six demons on his tail, and the two that he avoided on an intercept course, Tyroth needed as much room to maneuver as possible. Punches, kicks, slashes and tail-swipes were exchanged between the dragon and demons as they danced around in the sky in a dogfight never before seen by human eyes. The demons that Tyroth already had struck down had rejoined the fight, and even though not even half of the attacks from either side hit, those that did hurt. The demons may outnumber Tyroth, but he's stronger than they are, and his healing ability further evens the scales. However, he had no idea of just how much stamina demons have, and his was starting to run out.

* * *

Back in the lair, most of the young mutants had started realize that their research had been almost pointless. There was nothing solid on their new foes, the only things they knew were that the demons posses some kind of poison and can be killed by their weapons. But that information was based on the few demons, or rather the one demon, they had faced so far.

"That's it, I give up." sighed Raph as he closed the fifth book he'd read tonight. "We've been at this for hours and haven't found squat."

"I'm not complaining, I managed to get a new high-score." said Mikey cheerfully. The others looked at him with slight annoyance, but choose to ignore him. He did have a near-death-experience after all.

"Had any luck?" asked Donnie as he just walked out of his lab.

"No." said Sephie. "How about you? What have you been working on all this time?"

"Well, I've checked a few things that I was curious about. Then I started working on trying to make a synthetic cure to the 'taint' based on the one we got from Tyroth's blood. It's still only a bunch of calculations, but if it works, I might even be able to make something closer to a vaccine."

"You mean that we could become immune like Tyroth?" asked Mona.

"Best case scenario, yes."

"I'm afraid to ask, but what would be the worst case scenario?" asked Leo.

"Another form of poison that can't be beaten and that will kill us." the others went pale. "But the most likely outcome is that it will only make us more resistant, not immune. So you don't have to worry."

"Please be thorough with your work, my son," said Splinter, who had arrived without any of the mutants noticing "I do not want any of you harmed by what could be your only defense against these creatures."

"I will be careful, sensei. But at this stage, the odds of actually making something that I even would consider using, are extremely low. May take several months before I'll have something physical to work with."

"I see. By the way, have any of you seen Tyroth recently?"

"We thought that he was still with you." said Mona.

"He left for the surface an hour ago, after he had another vision of what he believed was the moon. He hoped that he could get some clues to the other visions we examined during our session. Said that he would be back within an hour."

"I hope nothing has happened to him." said Sephie concerned.

"I'm sure he's fine," said Leo "but I'll give him a call, just in case."

Picking up his shell-cell, Leo dialed Tyroth, but there was no signal.

"That doesn't bode well. I can't reach him."

"Maybe the battery's run dry." said Mikey.

"Not impossible, but unlikely." said Donnie "But it might be damaged."

"I'm calling April, she might know something. He might even be there." said Leo as he dialed the number to April and Casey.

"Hello, this is April O'Neil."

"Hey April, Leo here. Sorry for bothering you at this hour."

"It's no bother, Leo. We haven't found anything useful in the shop yet, though."

"We've had the same results here, but that's not why I'm calling you. Have you seen Tyroth lately?"

"Not since we left the lair, no. Is he missing?"

"Hey! April, quick, check this out!" Casey called from another room.

"Hold on Leo. This sounds important."

There was a short moment of silence, save for something Leo couldn't quite make out.

"Leo!" April said all of a sudden with a worried tone, startling the blue-masked turtle. "Channel Six, now!"

Unsure of what she had seen on said channel, Leo hurried over to the TV. He left so suddenly that it took the others a few moments before they followed Leo to the TV. They were not met by good news.

* * *

_"We're coming to you live from just south of Central Park, where seven mysterious, flying creatures are fighting in the air above us." _said the female reporter as the camera tilted upwards, focusing on said creatures. The gang immediately recognized the largest of the group.

"Tyroth!?" they said in unison.

_"It is unknown where these creatures came from, as is the motive behind this fight. However, it is clear that the six smaller ones are fighting together against the largest one. Special forces are being mobilized as we speak, their goal is to capture these creatures, but they will resort to lethal methods should they have to. Citizens are advised to stay indoors until this situation is resolved. Wait, the largest creature is flying of to the north and the others are pursuing it. It looks like they are heading towards Central Park."_

"Then that's where we're heading as well." said Leo "Gear up and head to the battle-shell." While the gang went of collecting their equipment, Mikey was halted by Splinter.

"You will not be joining them, Michelangelo."

"Huh? Why not, sensei?"

"You have yet to recover fully from the demon's poison, you may cause permanent harm to your body if you go."

"But, I have to help Tyroth, he's my friend. He carried me back here, he watched over me so that you all could sleep, he even had the cure I needed. I have to help him, I owe my life to him." Splinter placed his hand on Mikey's shoulder.

"I understand, my son. But there is nothing you can do right now. Let Sephie, your brothers and your sister handle this."

Mikey sighed in disappointment and felt bad about not going, but he understood what Splinter meant. He would only get in the way, more so than usual, but it still left a bad taste in his mouth. He looked at the others as they assembled by the elevator, he could see that they understood why he stayed behind.

* * *

Tyroth swooped through the air with all six of the demons right behind him, he couldn't continue fighting in the air much longer so he needed another place where they could fight, a place where there would be as few humans as possible.

Diving to a lower altitude, merely a few meters above ground, he hoped that he could use the surroundings to his advantage this time.

One of the demons was getting very close to Tyroth, ready to rip the wings straight of Tyroth's back. But Tyroth was well aware of this pursuer. As he continued forward, he grabbed onto a lamppost and spun around delivering an improvised roundhouse kick to the demons face, sending him crashing into a garbage can. Releasing his grip of the lamppost, Tyroth returned to his original flight path.

Two more of the demons started to catch up to him, the first of which Tyroth avoided by doing a loop, this put him behind the second demon. Tyroth dove straight at him, planting his foot in the back, and he didn't stop there. He kept his foot on his foe and the combined momentum forced the demon downwards rapidly. The demon hit the ground and left quite the trail in the soil.

Before they came to a stop, Tyroth jumped back into the air to continue the fight against the remaining four. The fourth demon crashed right into Tyroth just as he got back into the air, sending both of them into a nearby tree. Several large branches snapped under the force that the two flyers crashed with. Tyroth hit the ground first, and as he got back on his feet, he did a quick mental check of his injuries. His head still hurt from the first crash but most of his body was still in relatively good condition, aside from his wings. The trip through the tree had sprained them, so flying was out of the question, at least for the time being.

Looking around he spotted the demon that he crashed with not far away. He was also getting back on his feet. Tyroth hurried over and punched him in the face so hard that the demon was thrown back a few meters. Yet he immediately started to get up again.

In the corner of his eye, Tyroth saw the other demons descending and moving towards him, including the two he knocked down not long ago.

"For crying out loud! These things just won't stay down!"

He had hoped that he could knock a few of them out, so that he'd only have to deal with a few of them, but they were tougher than they looked. Against normal thugs and gangs, even Foot-ninja, Tyroth could easily hold his own against up to a dozen opponents, the demons, however, were a different league all together.

Not wanting to risk leading them back to the lair, Tyroth had no choice other than to keep fighting, and even though the odds were not in his favor, that was what he intended to do. Fight to the death if so be it.

* * *

The demons circled around Tyroth and surrounded him. An attack could come from any direction, and if Tyroth managed to protect himself against it, the others would attack him while he would be preoccupied. Likewise, if he attacked either of his foes, the others would strike him down.

The demon standing behind Tyroth was the first to make a move, charging against the dragon, claws ready to rend flesh. Tyroth heard how the enemy came closer. Turning around, he dodged the attack and grabbed the demon by the wrist. Another one lunged at him as soon as he turned around. Using the momentum of the demon he'd grabbed, Tyroth swung him like a club and knocked down the other attacker, causing the two demons to land in a pile.

Despite his successful counter, three more of the demons charged him and tried to wrestle him to the ground. One grabbed Tyroth's legs while the second twisted his left arm. The third grabbed onto Tyroth's neck and let the serrated beak cut deep wounds as he bit the dragon. As Tyroth struggled to free himself, the last three demons joined the brawl and felled him to the ground face first, ripping and slashing his flesh.

"**I. HAVE. HAD. ENOUGH!**" Tyroth shouted, forcing himself back up and throwing of all but the demon on his back. Grabbing said demon by the head, he threw him over the shoulder, sending him flying over ten meters. The demon landed, back first, on a pavement road that ran through the park. Opening his eyes, he saw Tyroth jumping towards him, with a red glow around his right fist. Before the demon could get back up, Tyroth's fist struck him in the face, crushing the skull and almost shattering the pavement underneath. The body twitched slightly before becoming completely limp and disintegrating.

'Should have done that from the beginning.' Tyroth thought to himself. He turned his attention back to the remaining five demons, they were already up, but seemed a bit shocked. Not waiting for them to recover, Tyroth charged them for a change. An energy-powered left-hook sent the closest demon into a lamppost, leaving the lamppost rather bent.

Two of the demons attacked Tyroth, slashing at him. Dodging their attacks, Tyroth grabbed the wrist of one and threw him to the side. This allowed the other one to slash Tyroth over the face. Flinching from the pain, Tyroth covered his face with his right hand. A third demon lunged at the dragon, with the intent of ripping his throat.

Hearing the approaching foe, Tyroth turned around fast, swatting the demon aside with his strong tail. He continued his revolution with an energy-powered kick to the stomach of the demon who slashed him in the face. The impact alone would have killed a human, and left the demon in a lot of pain even before he crashed into a bench.

Tyroth now had the odds on his side, but he was getting really tired. The meditation earlier left him mentally more exhausted than he'd like to admit, and the headfirst collision didn't help, nor did the fact that he'd barley slept. Even with his energy and healing rate, he would not keep be able to going for much longer. He needed to finish this fast.

Then he heard it. The sound of an engine. But who would drive through a park at this hour?

* * *

A large, mostly green armored truck came crashing through the bushes and Tyroth recognized it. The battle-shell. It braked hard and swung around, passing Tyroth with barley a meter. The back-doors opened and Leo jumped out while the truck was still moving. He drew his katanas and landed right in front of one of the demons. Slashing at the surprised foe, Leo decapitated him where he stood, before he even had the chance to understand what had just happened.

"Aim for the heads!" Leo shouted. "That's their weak spot!"

Raph and Mona dashed out of the truck, their weapons drawn, heading for the one closest to them. The demon in return charged against them. Before the twosome got within four meters of the demon, they both jumped to the sides. A glimmer in the moonlight was all the demon saw, before an arrow pierced his head, ending the foul creatures life. Donnie and Sephie had left the battle-shell and joined the fight.

Donnie rushed to Leo's side, hitting the fourth demon over the head to interrupt his attempt to rush the blue-masked turtle. Quickly regaining his stance, the demon leaped at the two turtles. But his attack was yet again interrupted, this time by Tyroth, who had leaped at the demon. Rolling around on the ground, Tyroth quickly got his foe in a headlock with his left arm. Using his right hand, Tyroth took a firm grip at the base of the demon's skull and tore the head clean off.

Mona and Raph slashed and stabbed against one of the two remaining demons, he managed to dodge them but never had an opening to attack without leaving himself wide open. Sephie had switched from her bow to her daggers and joined the pair. Unfortunately one of her attacks left a gap in her defense, which their opponent used to his advantage.

But it was all a feint from Sephie, as the demon tried to impale her on his claws, she bent backwards and using her tail as support, kicked him in the stomach. This gave Mona the opportunity she needed to jab her folded fan in the throat of the demon, hitting the spine and snapping it.

* * *

Only one demon remained, the one that had crashed into a bench, the same one that Tyroth had met earlier the same day. Seeing how all his comrades had fallen, he took flight.

"That guy's getting away!" shouted Donnie as he pointed to the now flying demon.

"No he's not!" said Mona as she drew her bow, but she was interrupted by Sephie before she could draw an arrow.

"Why not try some heavier ammo?" Sephie said with a smile as she handed an arrow to Mona. An arrow with a red, pointy cylinder instead of the normal arrowhead. Mona recognized it and smiled in return as she took it.

Taking aim, she held her breath as she concentrated. She released her grip and the arrow flew through the air. It struck its target between the shoulders and an explosion lit up the area as it tore the demon to pieces. The remains were little more than dust and smoke by the time they hit the ground.

Tyroth sighed in relief, the battle was over and he still lived.

"Thanks guys." he said "Now, if you excuse me." Tyroth collapsed where he stood and fell to the ground. Worried about their friend, the team hurried over him.

"How is he?" Leo asked while Donnie examined the large mutant.

'Snore'

"Asleep apparently. Can't blame him, must have been one shell of a fight. Help me get him into the back of the battle-shell and we'll be of, preferably before the police or those special forces show up."

* * *

An unknown amount of time later, Tyroth started to wake up from his slumber. He was lying in a bed, most likely in the medical room, and he could hear the voices of his friends talkning next to him.

"How bad is it?" said Mikey.

"He's gonna be fine, he just need some time to recover." answered Donnie "Fighting in the condition he was in, took quite the toll on him."

"Have I ever told you how tired I am of waking up with all of you standing around me, but how lucky I feel to have such good friends?" said Tyroth, almost startling the seven mutants.

"How long have you been awake?" asked Leo.

"A minute or two, I think." said Tyroth, trying to sit up, but he felt too dizzy to stay up.

"Easy, big guy. You've just had a concussion. That and the other injuries you've gotten will take some time to heal properly, even for you." said Donnie, helping Tyroth back down.

"Did you find any answers before you were attacked?" asked Splinter, curious of the results of Tyroth's time topside.

"Other than that the demons clearly are hostile? No."

"The same as us then." said Sephie.

"Well, I did actually find something, other than the potential vaccine against the taint that I already told most of you about." Donnie started.

"You mean that thing that you needed to check with Sephie's blood, right?" said Mona. Donnie nodded.

"Spit it out then." said Raph, rather impatiently.

"As you said, I checked Sephie's blood, and I found the same protective micro-cells as Tyroth has."

"So, I'm immune too?" asked Sephie a bit confused.

"Yes, which means..." Donnie started.

"...that my immunity have nothing to do with my dragon part." Tyroth filled in.

"Exactly." Donnie continued. "And that means that their origin must be something you two have in common. My money is on the well that mutated you."

"That does seem logical." said Leo,

"The well, huh?" said Tyroth. Suddenly, a vision flashed before his eyes. The same vision that he thought was of the moon, but the 'moon' vibrated, or rather rippled. "Of course!" he exclaimed.

"What is it, honey?" Sephie asked.

"It wasn't the moon I saw during my meditation, it was the well! What I believed were stars must have been the shards of quarts in the cave-walls."

"It seems that the well might be the answer we seek." said Splinter.

"I agree, sensei." said Leo. "We should investigate it further, and that means we have to make a little excursion to Chicago."

"Whoo-hoo! Road-trip! We're finally going to Mutopia!" Mikey cheered.

"Calm down Michelangelo." Splinter said. "Tyroth is in no condition for such a journey, he need to rest and recover. And so do you, my son."

"We also need to plan this trip. It's almost 800 miles from here to Chicago and that will take, let me think... about fourteen hours, give a take, if we take the battle-shell." explained Donnie.

"How do the two of you get here in the first place?" Raph asked.

"We know a guy, who runs a private shipping company. He gave us a lift in his cargo plane." said Sephie "But he's doing some jobs further south for a few weeks, so that's a no-go. And I don't think we'd all fit in the plane, at least not if we have to hide, which we will have to when we land. Security controls."

"We're simply too many for that, so the battle-shell seems to be our best shot." said Mona. "If we travel from dusk until dawn, we might just manage it unseen."

"We'd better tell Mutopia we're coming, just so they know." said Sephie.

"I can help with that." said Donnie. He and Sephie left for Donnie's lab to contact Mutopia.

"We'd better start thinking about what we'll need fro this trip. Let's make some lists." said Leo.

So began the preparation for one major excursion for the mutants.

**Phew, this chapter took some effort, but I'm pleased as can be with it. Hope that you guys liked it as well. Next time, we'll follow the team as they travel to Mutopia and maybe see what it's like.**

**Note: from now on, I'm out of per-written chapters. I've have had a lot to do, with my job and with moving into my first apartment, a whole two months ahead of schedule I might add. Anyhow, updates will be a bit on the slow side, but I will finish this story.**

**So, keep checking back every now and then. Okay?. Thanks.**


	14. Chapter 14

**Ancient Legacy**

**Chapter 14**

After deciding that they would travel by roads, with the battle-shell, most of the gang were busy packing and planning, while Mikey and Tyroth got to relax in order to recover some strength for the trip. Their relaxation had for the last hour consisted of playing Go Fish.

Once the others were done, Splinter told them that they all should go to bed early, it had been an eventful night and the next would be a very long one. Said and done, the young mutants retired to their rooms with out any complaints, with the exception of Mikey, who wanted another rematch against Tyroth.

The travel-plan was that they would leave at about seven the next evening and would arrive at Chicago at roughly nine in the morning. Hopefully, they would not catch anyone's attention on the way.

They had already packed all of their things into the battle-shell, having packed light, it didn't take much room. The luggage were mostly spare weapons and a lot of shell-cells, they tend to break rather often. Some spare clothes for Mona, as well as an extra robe fro Splinter were also packed, together with a large quantity of medical supplies. Donnie also brought his bag filled with various gadgets and tools, there was no way that he'd leave without it.

Time passed and everyone slept soundly. Tyroth was the first to wake up, feeling a lot better than the night before, he decided to make a large breakfast for the group. It didn't take very long before the others woke up by the smell of food cooking. After breakfast, they made sure they had everything they needed and packed the only thing they had yet to pack, food. They needed something to eat on the road, and they didn't want to repeat what had happened when they came back from Casey's Family farmhouse after their first visit, when the milk they'd left had turned into cheese, and probably crawled around the fridge at some point.

* * *

A couple of hours later, they had made their way into the state of Pennsylvania. Donnie was driving with Mikey riding shotgun, while the others sat in the back talking, reading or just taking it easy. Mikey was keeping himself entertained by playing Twenty questions with Donnie, much to Donnie's irritation at first, but he welcomed the mental exercise eventually, even though the questions were kept easy for Mikey's sake.

The peaceful trip was, however, interrupted, when Donnie spotted lights in the side mirror, flashing in red and blue, getting closer by the second.

"Uh-oh. A motorcycle police! What should we do?" said Donnie and a sense of nervousness spread amongst the mutants.

"I've got an idea." said Sephie. "Do as the ninja you are and become invisible."

"Come again?" Donnie asked.

"Sephie is right," said Splinter "there are more ways to become invisible than just hiding in the shadows."

Reluctantly, Donnie slowed down and pulled over. The cop did the same and parked his vehicle right behind the truck. Walking over to the drivers side, the window was lowered. The policeman got quite the shock when he saw a humanoid turtle in the drivers seat.

"Good evening, officer. Is there something I can help you with?" said Donnie, remaining calm.

"Uhm... What's the meaning of this?" the cop asked.

"The meaning of what? Oh, right, my appearance. There's nothing to worry about, we're actors."

"Actors? Wait, 'we'?"

"That's right, dude." said Mikey as he moved his head into view of the cop.

"Mikey, please show the officer some respect." Donnie said, before turning back to the cop. "I apologize for my colleague."

"Uhm, no problem. But if you're actors, what are you doing out here at this time? And in that kind of vehicle?"

"Well, we are supposed to shoot a few scenes in the morning over by Chicago, but the ones responsible for the logistic screwed up badly, so both we and the truck were left behind. We decided to drive to the area they're gonna shoot at, the truck is road-legal after all, even though it's mostly a prop."

"Okay... But why are you still dressed... like that." the cop gestured towards Donnie.

"For the simple reason that it takes nearly two hours to get in or out of these costumes, and that's if you got help from those who handle all clothes and costumes. Otherwise, you risk ruining the suit, and they're really expensive. Costs more than we make."

"But weren't you actors? I always thought that they had pretty good wages."

"Yeah, but, we're not actually actors, per se. We're just extras in expensive suits, and all credit in the, well, credits, will go to those who voice the characters."

"So that's how it is, huh? Anyway, you shouldn't drive in those suits, they might hinder you."

"Oh, but that's the good part about them. They're very flexible and weigh remarkable little. They have to, as we have to move around a lot. It's quite the action-filled movie."

"Really, what's it about?"

"It's a science fiction movie." Mikey said, once again moving his head into sight. "Four alien turtle-looking commandos arrive on Earth to stop a mysterious villain called 'the Shredder'. Once on Earth, they meet a pair of lizard sisters from the same planet, and they're assassins, like ninja style, man. With the turtles, there's also their Yoda-like commander, an old rat-like alien."

Donnie, and Raph, wanted to give Mikey a slap on the back of the head for the awkward story he made up. But, his imagination was fairly unlimited thanks to all the time he spent with comic books, cartoons and video-games. Besides, they couldn't think of anything better themselves, so they let him continue.

"But that's not all." Mikey continued, rather excited. "There's also this guy called 'Overlord', leader of the largest crime syndicate on Earth. And he get's his hands on some alien DNA, which he tries to use to create an army of super-soldiers. Things don't go as planned when the test-subject is turned into a large humanoid dragon-juggernaut. When the movie reaches its peak, boy, will it get hectic."

"I can imagine." said the cop. "I'm not much for sci-fi movies, but this one, I might just go and see it when it's released."

"Let's just hope that it will." said Donnie "The producers rely heavily on funds from a numbers of sponsors, and several of them are having second thoughts, so the entire movie is risking to get scrapped."

"That's too bad." said the policeman. He then pulled out something from one of his pockets and handed it to Donnie. "I know this ain't much, but it might just help."

"A ten dollar-bill? Thank you officer."

"Well, you better get going then. Just be sure to take a break from the driving if you start to get tired. A tired driver is just as bad as a drunk one."

"I will, officer. And thank you."

As the policeman got back on his motorcycle and drove of in the opposite direction, Donnie sighed in relief and wiped of the sweat of his forehead. He then started the truck and continued their trip.

"That was a bit closer than I'd like." Donnie said. "Thanks for the help, Mikey."

"No problem, bro." Mikey smiled. Suddenly, he felt a tug in the ends of his mask, tightening the grip around his head.

"You and the others get to be commandos and assassins, and what do you make me, Mikey? A failed experimental, alien-human hybrid, dragon-juggernaut. Is that any way to treat the one who's responsible for saving your life?" said Tyroth with a tight grip on the young turtle's mask.

"Ow. I was on a roll, dude. Ease up, will you? It just came to me as I went along."

Tyroth chuckled as he released his grip and went back to his seat.

"You're crazy, Mikey." he said with an amused tone.

"You haven't noticed until now?" asked Raph a bit sarcastic.

* * *

The remainder of the trip was, luckily enough for the mutants, uneventful, and while it still took them several hours to reach Chicago, they finally did.

Tyroth and Sephie directed Donnie along the streets until they arrived at a warehouse in the southern parts of town. It looked rather modern, with only a little wear and tear in a few places. Stopping outside, Sephie exited the truck and walked over to a console. Pressing a few buttons, a green light shone from the console and the large door was raised. The lizard gestured for Donnie to park the truck in the far end of the warehouse.

The inside was almost completely filled with crates and large containers, many with various shipping manifest attached to them. The mutants exited the battle-shell and Leo was about to try and cover the truck with a few tarps that lay not far from it, but Tyroth stopped him.

"There is no need for that." the dragon said "This warehouse is owned by Sukiwara. We can use it as we see fit, as long as we don't mess around with what's not ours."

"Okay, now where to?" asked Raph. Sephie led them to a backdoor that led to an alley, from where they were supposed to go down into the sewers.

A few drops of rain fell and were followed by more downpour. A bolt of lightning illuminated the dark morning sky, signaling that a storm had arrived. With all its grace and all its fury.

* * *

"It don't look that different from the sewers back home." said Mikey, as soon as they had entered the sewers. "Smells about the same too."

"We'll give you a proper tour of this place some other time." said Sephie. "Come on, we've got at least twenty minutes of walking ahead of us."

Little more than than twenty minutes later, after navigating through the sewers, they came to an area where one of the walls was made of natural rock, rather than the bricked walls in the rest of the sewers. A large hole was in the middle of the wall, sealed of by crossing metal beams attached to the wall. On the beams there was a sign that read:

'Warning! Unstable cave. High risk of cave-ins! Entrance forbidden.'

"Are we going in there?" asked Mona, to which Tyroth nodded. "Is there no other way?"

"There are a few other entrances, but the closest one of those is over an hour's walk away. And the risk isn't as high as they claim. Unless you use explosives in the tunnels, like the first time we passed through here."

"Wait, is this the same tunnel that you two almost got killed in? When you were still human?" asked Leo.

"The very same." answered Sephie. "Not a very fond memory, but it's one of the best entrances to Mutopia. Difficult to find, unless you know where it is, and no one dares enter it."

"How do we get in then?" asked Raph, gesturing at the metal beams.

"Like this." said Tyroth and walked over to the tunnel. He lifted the left end of the barricade a little and swung it open, revealing that it was actually a cleverly disguised door.

"Better grab some flashlights, it's pitch-black in there." said Sephie.

A few minutes later the team came to a halt, when a cave-in blocked the path.

"Okay... now what?" said Donnie.

"Just like you, we have a hidden console that opens the way." said Sephie. She walked over to the right side of the tunnel. Inside a small crack in the wall was the console she spoke of, hidden from sight, its surface made to feel like the stone it's built into. Pressing the buttons in a sequence she knew well, Sephie stepped back a little as the rubble blocking the way slowly fell backwards, revealing the final part of the tunnel.

"A hydraulic ramp, camouflaged like rocks. Genius." Donnie commented.

"Took some time to fix, but well worth it." said Tyroth "We'll teach you the combination later, for now, let's continue, we're almost there."

A few more minutes were all they needed to walk, before they could see a light at the end of the tunnel. Stepping out into the light, they were met by a sight they'd never expected a year ago.

"Guys..." Sephie said with a big smile

"Welcome to Mutopia!"

**And there we end this chapter. Please don't be mad! Next time we'll meet most of the residents of Mutopia, and someone from the past. Not saying who, so take a guess. See you!**

**Oh, and please review, I like those. :)**


	15. Chapter 15

**Ancient Legacy**

**Chapter 15**

"Guys..." Sephie said with a big smile

"Welcome to Mutopia!"

What a sight it was, the sanctuary for the outcasts. A place where everyone was an equal, no matter who you were, where you were from or even what you were. If you wanted to live a life in peace, this was the place.

The architecture was very much like that of the turtles' lair. The large area they saw, which could be compared with a town-square, was almost oval in shape and could easily fit the entire lair three times over, and still have room for the garage. The team had entered on the 'tip' of the area, from which they could see that both sides had a second floor, each with lots of doors. Three stairs on either side, one at each end of the hall and one in the middle, allowed for easy access.

The bottom-floor had a pair of larger doors on each side as well as several of the same size as on the second floor. A canal of water split the area down the middle, before reaching a large pool near the entrance, from there the water continued through an underwater cave. Two broad bridges crossed the canal, placed between the stairs. The walls had crystals evenly placed as light-sources, and the ceiling had several clusters of crystals as well.

And all over the place, there were mutants walking around, doing a bit of this and fiddling with a bit of that, socializing like... normal humans. And they were all kinds of mutants, dog, cat, duck, some sort of insect, even a rhino and a warthog, the later of which had a purple mohawk.

The New Yorkers could only stand there with their mouths open as they processed what the saw. Sure, they had been told about Mutopia a few times, but it was something else to actually see it.

"Welcome indeed." said an elderly and gentle voice, catching the attention of the visitors. Walking towards them was a humanoid turtle with a pair of white, fuzzy eyebrows and an equally white, pointed beard hanging from his chin. Being a bit shorter than the four turtle-brothers, he was dressed in a very similar robe to that of Splinter, and had a wooden cane as well.

"Wow, check out 'Turtle Splinter', bros." Mikey whispered, only to receive a blow to the head by Splinter's cane.

"Be respectful, Michelangelo." Splinter scolded the youngest turtle.

"Well, it seems like some of the old teachings are still used by the young ones." the old turtle chuckled.

"It has been quite some time since anyone called me young." said Splinter with a raised eyebrow.

"I mean no disrespect, of course. I am well aware that you are among us senior individuals, but when you get as old as me, most of those you meet are young in comparison. There are not many that I know of that are older than 242 years. But I digress, I am George, founder, and finder, of the sanctuary known as Mutopia."

* * *

The newcomers introduced themselves in order. George was about to lead them on a tour when something small and mostly colored pink, leaped onto Tyroth, catching him off guard, he fell to the floor. The assailant was a small lizard girl, not much older than seven or eight years. She had shoulder long, amber colored hair and wore a blue t-shirt and a pair of violet sweatpants. Aside from a few minor differences, she was very much like Sephie and Mona in her appearance, with the exception being that her skin was colored in a bright tone of pink.

"Uncle Tyroth! You're back!" she squealed happily as she hugged him.

"I'm glad to see you too, Sonia. Could you please get off of me, so I can get up." The little girl did as she was asked. While Tyroth got back on his feet, Sonia's skin changed from pink to a bright green color.

"Is she..." Donnie started.

"Part chameleon, yes." Sephie filled in. "Can't tell just by looking at her though."

"Hold on!" Raph cut in "She called Tyroth 'Uncle'. I though he only had one sister and... that is... but... Will someone please explain it." First now did Sonia notice that six of the mutants standing before her were strangers, shyly she hid behind Tyroth and her color became more of a yellow tone.

"Little Sonia sees Tyroth as a father-figure." said George "We are not sure why, but as you can see, she is quite shy around other people. Tyroth and myself were the only ones she was not shy around, and through Tyroth she has overcome her shyness for Sephie, to a certain point."

"She knows that Tyroth isn't her father, so he became 'Uncle Tyroth' to her." said Sephie "None of us mind it though, I think it's just adorable."

"I agree." said Mona. At the sound of Mona's voice, Sonia peeked from behind Tyroth. Slowly she walked towards Mona with questioning eyes, stopping a few meters in front of her.

"You're pretty. Are you Sephie's sister?" she asked. The sudden and yet so innocent question caught Mona by surprise.

"Sephie's sister? No, well, in a way, we are like sisters. I'm Monalisa, but you can call me Mona. And thank you, you're very pretty too."

"I hate to brake this up, but it's getting late," said Tyroth "and you, young lady, should be in bed by now."

"But I don't want to." Sonia whined, changing to a dark blue color.

"I've told you, many times before, if I'm going to be your uncle, then I'm gonna make sure to take care of you. Now come along and I'll even read you a story."

"Yay!" she cheered, once again in her bright pink color.

"I'll catch up with you guys later." Tyroth said, walking away while Sonia held his hand.

"That's a side of Tyroth I didn't think he'd have." said Donnie.

"Despite his appearance, Tyroth is actually a very big softie, always has been." said Sephie "It's part of his protective nature, you haven't seen it because you're capable to take care of yourselves. And you aren't five years old."

"Five years? She looked like she was closer to ten." said Leo.

"For some reason, she matures faster than a human child." George explained. "A protective trait of the well, no doubt."

"How did such a sweet and innocent child come to be here?" asked Splinter. George sighed and got a sad look on his face.

"It is a tragic tale, I am afraid. As I am sure you have guessed by now, Sonia is an orphan. Nearly four years ago there was a party on a private yacht in the lake. Among the guests where a couple and their one-year old daughter. Then, a storm hit. The yacht was not built for the kind of weather we have around here and sank. Most of the people survived, but the parents did not, and they never found their little girl. By some miracle she was dragged along the currents and arrived in one of the underground lakes around here, where we found her. Poor girl barely drew breath, we had no choice other than to let her drink from the well. Even if we had managed to get her to a hospital, I know not what they would have been able to do for her."

"That's so sad. Poor Sonia." said Mona with a few tears forming in her eyes.

"Very few of us are here because of happy events, but Sonia has blessed us with much happiness since then, even if she is a bit shy. It simply lifts my spirit to have someone so young and happy here."

"Haven't there been any other children before?" asked Leo.

"Unfortunately no. There has never been a single birth here, and we have had several couples that have wanted children and tried. But it seems that their animal parts have not been compatible. Either that, or even worse, that we are all sterile."

"Why would you be sterile?" asked Donnie.

"A possible side effect from the well, I would wager. Its powers are still not fully understood. But I pray that it is not the case, and I have high hopes about Tyroth and Sephie, seeing as their animal parts are much more alike than the previous couples."

"Yeah, no pressure Gramps." said Sephie. "I'm not sure if we're ready to have children yet. Or rather, if I'm ready. Tyroth seem to have a good hand with kids."

"An old turtle can dream, can he not?" George chuckled.

"Forgive me for asking, but the well is supposed to heal all ailments, right?" said Leo.

"That is correct." George answered.

"My question is, why are you using a cane then?"

"As you said, the well heal everything, aside from what it causes, so I have no problem with my back. No normal problem, at least. You see, I can not walk upright because of my large shell, it makes me back-heavy, so I have to walk slightly bent forward. But, doing so puts me at risk of falling forward instead, so I use this cane here for support. It also give me that wise look."

"Now that you mention it, it does give of an aura of wisdom." said Donnie. Shortly after he yawned quite loudly. "My apologies, it was a long trip here, and like Tyroth said, it's rather late. Especially since New York is one hour ahead of Chicago."

"I understand." said George "We will give you a tour of our home tomorrow. Sephie, would you be so kind as to lead them to the guest-rooms?"

"Of course." Sephie said, and led her friends up to the second floor's left side. There she pointed out several rooms that were empty, and thus used as guest-rooms. Splinter, Mona and the turtles each got a room to stay in. The rooms were furnished simply, a bed, a drawer, a small table with a couple of chairs and a bookcase were standard in all rooms. Even though the rooms themselves were slightly larger than the ones back in the lair, they had a more rough feel to them. The Mutopians really did salvage whatever they could use, but by the looks of it, there weren't many skilled carpenters among them. Before Sephie left, she said that they would serve breakfast at eight, local time, she then wished them good night.

* * *

In another room, Tyroth had just finished reading a bedtime story for little Sonia, who was soundly asleep, hugging her large pillow while Tyroth adjusted her blanket. Exiting the room, Tyroth was met by Sephie.

"What story did you read tonight?" she asked.

"Cinderella." he replied shortly.

"Sonia's very lucky to have you taking care of her."

"Jealous?" Tyroth asked teasingly. Sephie walked up closer.

"No, just looking forward to when we have a child of our own someday. If we can have children, that is."

Tyroth embraced his mate in a warm and caring hug.

"Don't worry, my love. We will one day, I feel it."

The two shared a passionate kiss before breaking the hug.

"How about we go to bed as well?" Tyroth asked.

"Why not. It's been an eventful couple of days and I think we deserve some time for ourselves, I might even take you up on that rain check you offered earlier." Sephie said the last part with a seductive smile and kissed Tyroth on the cheek.

**Finally, our heroes have arrived in Mutopia. Sorry if there wasn't much progress, but this all came to me as I wrote. Should be more next time, I hope.**

**I'm particularly proud of Sonia, but I'm not sure if she'll make many more appearances, having some trouble with what color represent what mood, but what do you guys think. **

**By the way there are two cameos from the 80's cartoon, see if you can figure them out.**

**See you. :)**


	16. Chapter 16

**Ancient Legacy**

**Chapter 16**

Mona was woken up by someone knocking on the door. It took a little while before she remembered that she wasn't in her room back in the lair, but in a guest room in Mutopia, which explained why she felt a bit stiff as the mattress wasn't as comfortable as her own. Rubbing her eyes a bit, she heard Sephie's voice from outside the door.

"Mona? Are you up yet?"

"Not quite..." she answered sleepily.

"Okay. Well it's almost time for breakfast, so when you're ready I'll be waiting downstairs."

"Thank you. I'll be right down." Mona got out of the bed and walked over to the bathroom. It wasn't much more than a walled of corner of the room with a toilet and a small sink. Like the rest of the room, it wasn't exactly a five star hotel, or even a one star hotel for that matter. Simply sleeping here for one night told Mona that comfort wasn't something the Mutopians had much of, yet as far as she could tell, they seemed happy enough.

After washing up a bit, she got dressed and brushed her hair before exiting the room. Looking down into the large hall on the ground floor, Mona saw several mutants moving around, greeting each other and talking if they headed in the same direction. It was clear that what the inhabitants lacked in comfort, they made up for with companionship.

Mona's eyes swept across the area as she walked downstairs, noticing a large door in the right end of town. As it was in the opposite end of town compared to the entrance, Mona guessed that it was connected to a few other paths to the surface. Sephie met up with Mona with Tyroth and the turtles in tow, Mona saw that the turtles hadn't slept much better than her.

"Hope you slept well." said Sephie.

"No offense but I've slept better, though I've been through worse, too." Mona said, stretching a bit.

"You'll get used to it." said Tyroth. "Now, let's head for the kitchen, and once we're done, we'll give you a tour of our home. I hope you guys are hungry."

A growl from Mikey's stomach told everyone within earshot that at least he was. Tyroth led the team to the first large door on the left side of town, seen from the entrance. It was a large room with several roes of tables with attached benches and an area in the back with several fridges and freezers as well as a couple of stoves and a griddle. Seated among the tables were a female fox, a male frog, a small male rat, a female badger, a male rhino, a male warthog, George and Splinter. The fox, frog, rat and badger sat together close to the kitchen area, while the rhino and warthog sat next to George and Splinter closer to the entrance.

"This place remind me of a school canteen." said Mona.

"The tables are actually from a school canteen." said Tyroth "They were thrown away when one of the schools was renovated a couple of years back."

"Hey Tyroth! Over here!" The rhino called when he saw the dragon. Waving in response, Tyroth and the others walked over to the table. The rhino and warthog were both dressed similar clothes to that of city thugs. The rhino favored a yellow and brown color scheme while the warthog had more red and black.

"Hi, guys. I hope that you're treating our guest properly." Tyroth said.

"Ah, come on, you know us." said the warthog.

"They have been very good to me, Tyroth." said Splinter, taking a sip of his tea. "Mmm... this tea is very good too. The soft, spicy taste is invigorating and yet surprisingly calming."

"I am glad that you like it, it is a blend that we have made ourselves from various herbs found on the islands. And it is caffeine-free so it works just as well giving you a small boost at the start of the day as it does helping you relax at the end." said George.

"Not to interrupt, but some introductions would be nice." said Leo.

"Oh, right. You can call me Cam." said the rhino.

"And I'm Barry." said the warthog. The team told them their names in return.

"Now, if you are done with the presentations, please be seated so I can serve you some breakfast." said another male voice from behind the team. Turning around, they saw a humanoid cockroach in an old and worn chef coat with a matching hat, and as far as they could see, he had only two arms and not four that a few expected an insect-mutant to have. Raph paled a bit at the sight of the large bug-man.

"Guys, meet our personal chef, Louie." said Sephie.

"A pleasure to meet you all." said Louie with a slight bow. "And before any of you freak out, I am nearly fanatical with keeping a good hygiene. I take my job very seriously, so there is no need to worry about me being part vermin. Now, please sit down and I'll bring you some food." Louie then turned around and walked over to the kitchen.

"Your own chef, huh? Now that's status." said Mikey.

"He decided to cook for us after he 'moved in' here, always cooking everyday. And Louie has been with us nearly twenty years now." said George.

"And I'll continue to do so for at least another twenty years." said Louie as he came back with a trolley with several plates of food on. Quickly, he served all at the table. The breakfast consisted of fried eggs, some boiled potatoes and carrots, freshly baked bread and breaded fish. A simple meal, and yet very delicious.

After finishing their breakfast, Cam and Barry stood up.

"It's been nice talking to you, but we have get going." said Cam.

"Yeah, the rain washed down a lot of garbage in the sewers yesterday, and we're gonna clean it up. See you around." said Barry. "Oh, and thanks for the food Louie."

"Good luck." said Sephie as the two left the canteen, receiving a thumbs up by them.

* * *

After a few minutes the gang also left to continue the tour of Mutopia. Walking over the bridge, they walked to the large doors across from the canteen. During the short walk, Tyroth explained that the smaller doors led to the same kind of rooms as they had on the second floor, with a few being exceptions in the form of storage rooms.

As the approached the large doors, they heard music. Upbeat jazz music. Opening the doors they saw a mutant mole playing along to an old record with a trumpet. Dressed in a pair of worn jeans and a leather vest with several thin leather-straps hanging from it, he also wore a bright yellow headband, that kept his rather long dreadlocks away from his face and a pair of round sunglasses. His build was rather chubby overall and his legs were a bit short and his fur was dark brownish gray.

For a few minutes the eight mutants simply stood and enjoyed the spectacle. Eventually the music reached the end and the mole finished with a short solo on the brass trumpet. When he was done, he received applause from his spectators. Bowing deeply in return, he enjoyed the attention.

"Not bad, not bad at all." said Tyroth "Allow me to introduce Moe, the guy that named Mutopia. Moe, meet our friends from New York."

"Most righteous to meet you, man's." Moe replied with a happy tone.

"Likewise... I think." said Leo.

"Welcome to my favorite, gnarly place in the whole funky town of Mutopia. Ain't it just mondo tubular?" Moe said as gestured all around him. First then did the team actually look around. The large room was filled with various things for recreation. Bookshelves with lots of different books, a few musical instruments, a TV of a rather new model, a couple of tables with chairs and some board and card games and a few couches and armchairs. Furthest in in the room stood even a pool-table of quite good quality.

"This place is awesome." said Mikey.

"I know what you mean, my groovy friend." Moe responded.

"But you're missing the most important thing for this kind of room. There are no video-games!"

"Well, you can't get everything Mikey." Donnie comforted, placing a hand on Mikey's shoulder. "Besides I packed some, just in case."

"Donnie, I hereby promote you to 'The Best Brother Ever'."

"Shall we continue?" asked Tyroth. The group thanked Moe once again for his performance and continued on their way. Following the wall to the right, they encountered the panicked scream of a young man and a roaring engine.

"Yaah! Make way!"

Out of the large open door came the young rat, previously seen in the canteen, riding on a motorcycle that was out of control. The gang quickly backed away as the bike did a sharp u-turn and headed straight for the wall. The driver was thrown off during the turn and that was his luck, as the bike crashed quite violently into the wall and stopped working.

"Phew. That could have gone better." said the rat as he got back up and wiped some dust off himself. He was slightly taller than Splinter and had brown fur, he wore a pair of jeans that had been shortened to shorts and a t-shirt that used to be white but was now covered in stains of oil and engine grease. He also had an old pilot cap with matching goggles.

"Are you okay?" asked Leo as they hurried over to the rat.

"I'm a rat, ain't I? And rats are survivors." said the rat turning around "Hey, you're them New Yorkers, ain'tcha? Nice to see some new faces around here, if you know what I mean. I'm Ryan, but you can call me Rattletrap. Most do around here."

"That's an odd nickname. Where does it come from?" asked Mona.

"From my mechanical expertise of course, what else." Rattletrap replied proudly.

"I know of the word 'rattletrap' and it's not what I would associate with expertise." said Donnie. "It's a name often given to machines, mostly cars, that are worn out and unreliable, which you can tell by the sound they make when they are working."

"Yeah, well... I need to get my bike back into the workshop and straighten out a few dents." As soon as Rattletrap tried to pull the bike by the handlebar, it came off and almost half of the bike's parts fell off.

"Ehhehehe... uhm... might need some adjustments. And glue." he said with in a tone that gave away that he felt kinda awkward at the moment.

"Just be careful so you turn that thing into a rattrap." Sephie cautioned.

* * *

Continuing into the workshop, the team was met by quite the mess, most likely left by Rattletrap. There were tools and parts lying all over a large portion of the floor. The rest of the workshop was in a so-so condition, most of the workbenches were made by hand and many tools were old and worn. Despite that though, if you had the skill, you could build many things here, from wooden furniture to machines. Donnie was pretty sure that he could have quite a good time in here.

Walling off the top right corner of the room was a wooden wall that seemed to have been built rather recently. A door in the middle of the wall opened slightly.

"Is it safe to come out?" a male voice asked from the other side.

"For the time being, yeah." Tyroth answered.

The door opened fully and a spider-mutant in blue shorts stepped out. Standing as tall as the turtles, his thin fur was gray and two extra arms extending on each side underneath his original arms, each of them ending with a four-fingered hand with nearly claw-like fingers. The feet were of a similar shape and he had a pair of mandibles just like Louie. Six additional eyes were placed in two triangle patterns, one above each original eye, all of which were still human and colored blue. Whether this made the mutant less creepy or more creepy could be discussed.

"Hacker, I presume?" said Donnie.

"That's right. Then you should be... what was the name again... Donnie, that's the one!" said the spider.

"Correct, and this is my family." Donnie gestured to the rest.

"Nice to meet you all. But, how's the one with the red headband feeling, he seems to be sweating."

"It's nothing." Raph answered. "I just... can't stand bugs. Nothing personal."

"No worries. You're not the first one, but enough about that, feel free to take a peek inside of my little corner." Hacker stepped aside so the others could see what was behind the door. The small area reminded them of Donnie's lab, if it had been stripped of all equipment and gadgets aside from the computers, not that you could fit anything else inside. Seven computer screens hanged on the walls, connected to five obviously modified computers.

"What's the wall for?" Mona asked. Before anyone could answer, the clanging noise of lots of metal hitting the floor was heard.

"Okay, now where's that glue?" they heard Rattletrap say.

"There's your answer. Ever since he started working his projects, the workshop has been a bit hazardous and my computers are sensitive equipment. While I applaud his skill at building things, the name 'Rattletrap' is well earned."

"Let's keep moving. We still have a few places left to show you guys. Talk to you later, Hacker." said Sephie.

"See you around."

* * *

The group once again crossed one of the bridges. Further to their left they could see the doors to the canteen, and had thus almost come full circle, as there were only one set of large doors left straight ahead. This room was larger than the others, nearly twice the length of the previous rooms. The room had several large boxes spaced out evenly in the room, each filled with soil and some kind of plants growing in them. A rack on the left side of the doors contained some gardening tools. What set this room off from the rest was however the large cluster of crystals in the ceiling, the other rooms only had smaller crystals in the ceiling and on the walls. This cluster was different from those out in the hall, while they, like all the small crystals as well, shone with a white light, these had a warmer yellow light.

"Is it just me, or does anyone else feel strange?" Mikey asked.

"No, I feel it too, Mikey." said Leo.

"As do I." said Splinter. "I feel reinvigorated for some reason."

"It's the crystals." said Tyroth, pointing to the cluster. "Their light have that effect on us and the plants as well. That's why we're using this area as a greenroom."

"Those crystals remind me of the crystal moon in the other ruins we found deep underground. Wonder if they're connected somehow. Maybe they're counterparts, that would make these a crystal sun."

"As long as they don't mess us up, they could be a crystal banana for all I care." said Raph.

"The only side-effect we've discovered is a form of withdrawal syndrome. If you stay in the light for too long, you'll get very tired when you step out of it. But that would require that you stay here for almost an entire day." said Sephie.

"Would you mind if we don't stay here for very long?" asked Mona, concerned that the crystals might affect them differently than the Mutopians.

"Not at all, Mona. Come on, we're going to head into the caves for the final part of the tour." said Tyroth.

On their way to the caves, they passed a set of smaller doors with a sign of a red cross outside.

"What's that area?" Raph asked.

"Hmm? Oh, I completely forgot about that place." said Tyroth. "That's our medical room, but between our healing abilities and the well, we rarely use it ourselves. But you might need to, if something would happen. It's very basic though, so try to be careful."

* * *

The mutants continued their walk and exited the ruins through the tunnel opposite of the entrance. The tunnel was quite large and had several paths going off here and there, some small and some large, with a few small streams coming out of a few, most of which merged into the river that ran into the city, while others continued deeper into the caves.

"How far does these tunnels go?" Splinter asked.

"Further than we've been able to check, that much is for sure. Many tunnels run deep underneath Lake Michigan as well." said Sephie.

"Wait, I hear something." Splinter said all of a sudden. "It is coming from that tunnel." he said, pointing at a large tunnel in front of them on the left side. The mutants stayed quiet for a while and listened.

"I hear it as well, master." said Leo.

The sound was distorted by its own echo, but you could still make out five or six voices and something hitting something else.

"Is it sort of a theme that every area you show us, is gonna make some kind of sound?" Mikey asked.

"I'm as confused as you are right now." Tyroth answered. "That tunnel only leads to a large empty cave. Been there once when we explored a bit and as far as I know, it's not used for anything."

"Then what's..." Donnie started, but stopped when a wolf-mutant walked out of said tunnel. He wore a black leather-vest with small spikes on the shoulders and a pair of jeans. As soon ans he saw the team he stopped in his tracks and seemingly tried to back away into the tunnel again.

"Jack?" Tyroth called, making the wolf stop again. "What's going on in there?"

"What's going on where? Nothing's going on here." Jack replied, with a hint of nervousness.

"You know, for being a former gang leader, you're quite bad at lying, Jack."

"'sigh' Okay, might as well tell you now. After you and Sephie came back from New York last time and told us about your adventures and friends, some of us started thinking. Maybe what you guys do, ain't such a bad idea after all, so we got together for combat-training. The plan was that we would help the two of you clean up the city, and after what you told us about the Foot and Overlord, it sounded like you might need some extra help. It was gonna be a surprise."

"More crime fighters? How many are there?" Leo asked.

"Well, there's me, obviously, then it's anyone who have some form of combat skills, like military training, martial arts or street fighting." Jack answered.

"Like me." said another voice from behind the group. They turned around and saw a large humanoid shark in gray shorts carrying a large water canister. His skin was bluish gray and he had webbing between his four fingers and three toes. He also had a tail fin, a dorsal fin and a large set of teeth that he showed with a big grin. "Call me Sharky."

"That's not a very original name." said Mikey.

"Don't make fun out of my name, or I'll eat you as turtle soup!" the large shark snarled.

"Eep!"

"I'm just messing with you, pipsqueak." Sharky chuckled "I'm a vegetarian actually, but please, don't make fun of my name, I like it."

"Okay, sure." Mikey felt relieved that the threat wasn't real and so did his family, who had been ready to defend the youngest turtle.

"Must you scare all newcomers, Sharky." Jack said "I thought that you had learned your lesson after Tyroth's sister gave you one hell of a wallop."

"What? Jennifer punched you?" Mona asked, barely able to contain a giggle.

"Yeah, straight on my nose. For a human, she packs one mean punch."

"Anyhow, let us show you the training ground for the 'Chicago Knights'" said Jack.

"'The Chicago Knights'? Really? That's what you call yourself?" Tyroth asked.

"It's a work in progress. If you have any better suggestions, please tell."

**I think that I'll end this chapter here, it became longer than I planned, but I had quite the good time with all these new characters. Any likeness between characters in this chapter and from other sources is almost coincidental, with a few exceptions. **

**Speaking of which, Barry and Cam are based on the original Bebop and Rocksteady (the cameos I mentioned last time) and their names are that of their original voice actors, Barry Gordon and Cam Clarke.**

**Next time we meet the Chicago Knights, looking forward for that. Oh, and by the way, if any of you have a good name suggestion, leave it in a review, I might use it.**

**Hope that you've gotten a decent picture of Mutopia. Don't feel bad if you got lost sometimes, it happened to me too and I have a map. See you around, folks. :)**


	17. Chapter 17

**Ancient Legacy**

**Chapter 17**

Jack and Sharky led the group into the cave they used as a dojo. It was a fairly large cave, high in ceiling and lots of open relatively flat ground, lit up by crystals attached to rods that were placed evenly throughout the cave. Tires, wooden boards and logs had been used to create some makeshift equipment. A couple of padded logs were used in the same way as sandbags while some other and tires had been turned into an obstacle course. There were also some ropes for skipping and weights for lifting. Training with said equipment were four mutants, three of which were women.

"Here you have our training-room, I know it's not much but it serves it's purpose." said Jack. "Now, let me introduce you to the others in our little group."

"Over there, you have Sarah." he said pointing at a female cat-mutant. She had half-short, raven-black hair and an almost blond fur with black spots and her eyes were green, she also had a tail. Dressed in a red t-shirt and gray sweatpants, she were using one of the skipping ropes.

"The two sparring over in the corner are Heather and Kate." Jack continued. One of the two mutants had reptilian features, consisting of sand colored scales and a tail. She had short light-brown hair and brown eyes, wore a beige tank-top and black pants with extra pockets just over the knees. The other mutant was an insect with two pairs of long, clear wings and carapace-like skin colored bronze, like Louie, she had only two arms. Her eyes were blue and she had shoulder long red hair, her clothing consisted of a pair of yellow clamdigger-pants and a white tank-top with a low-cut backside for the wings.

* * *

Jack clarified that Heather was the insect and Kate the reptile. He then pointed out the last of the mutants, who was practicing various kicks against one of the padded logs. A male insect, either a grasshopper or a cricket, his carapace was green as were his eyes and he wore a dark-blue pair of shorts and a light-blue t-shirt. He too only had two arms, but the proportions of his body were less human. His arms and torso were smaller and his legs were so long that almost two thirds of his length consisted of them alone. But that length and the muscular build of the legs gave them a lot of strength.

"Great, more bugs." Raph mumbled to himself.

"That there is Percy. Now that you know their names, how about we call them over and let them tell you a bit about themselves?" Jack said. He then called out to the others, who stopped what they were doing and walked over to meet them. The gang gave a quick introduction of themselves, after which the other four did the same.

"I'm Sarah and the fastest one in the city, it comes with being part cheetah."

"Jack already told you who I am, but it's more polite this way. My name is Heather, one of the few that are capable of flight. I'm a dragonfly. Pleased to meet you."

"The name's Kate, a viper, I've got fast reflexes and a poison, so don't fuck with me."

"Don't let her scare you, she' not so bad once you get to know her. Anyway, I'm Percy and I'm a grasshopper. Guess who's the best at jumping."

"Nice to meet you all" said Leo "It feel reassuring that there are more crimefighters like us in the world."

"Well, we're not actual crimefighters yet, we're still in training. But once we're done we would join up with Tyroth and Sephie." said Sarah.

"Speaking of which, way to spill the beans Jack." said Kate, voice dripping with annoyance and sarcasm.

"Sorry, but I am a terrible liar. Had they not run into me, it would still have been a secret."

"Doubtful. I may be old but my hearing is still sharp, I could hear you practicing shortly after we entered the tunnels." said Splinter.

"As to be expected by a master of ninjustu. We've been told of your skills and the tales do you justice." said Heather.

"Thank you, child, that is most kind of you to say."

"Maybe you should get going, you probably got some more places to show our guests." said Jack to Tyroth.

"And we got more training to do." said Kate.

"And not tell them the best part of this secret, that's no fun." said a familiar female voice from the tunnel. Turning around towards the voice, the mutants saw a human girl in her early twenties with shoulder long blond hair and dark-brown eyes, dressed in a knee long jeans-skirt and blue blouse. Everyone recognized the human, but Tyroth was the first to say something.

"Jennifer!" he exclaimed and the two met in a hug.

"It's good to see you again, big brother. Hi gang." she waved to the others. The team was surprised to see Jennifer again, they hadn't expected to see her so soon after arriving, but they didn't mind.

"Hold on," said Tyroth as they broke the hug "you were in on this, and there's more to come?"

"There will be, if some of you would come over and help us." said a male voice from the tunnel.

"Hugh?" Sephie said, while Jack and Sharky hurried into the tunnel.

"Who?" Mikey asked.

"Hugh." Sephie answered.

"That's what I asked. Who?" said Mikey.

"Not 'who'. 'Hugh'. H-U-G-H."

"Oh... who?"

"Hugh Beauregard. Police commander of one of the districts here in Chicago, and a good friend." said Tyroth.

Jack and Sharky returned carrying a large metal crate, similar to those militaries use for their equipment. Placing it on the floor, two humans came out of the tunnel. One in his late thirties with short orange hair with a few stains of gray and a large mustache matching the hair, his eyes were blue. He wore a light-brown trenchcoat with a white shirt and gray pants. The last human was an Asian man in his early to mid-thirties with short black hair and brown eyes, wearing a dark-gray business-suit.

"I still don't know how you two talked me into this. That box was heavy." said Hugh.

"It wasn't that difficult, my friend, as you care about our mutual friends here." said the Asian "Greetings to all of you."

"You too Haito?" asked Tyroth. The mentioning of that name made Donnie almost hyperactive.

"Haito? Sukiwara Haito?" he asked.

"That is my name, yes. A pleasure to meet you..." said Haito, extending his right hand.

"Donatello." the hyper turtle replied. Haito and Donnie shook hands for a short moment.

"I-I actually shook hands with the great Sukiwara! Somebody catch me, I think I'm gonna faint!" Donnie fell backwards between Raph and Mikey. Nobody caught him and he hit the floor with a thump.

"Why didn't you catch him?" Raph asked his younger brother.

"Me? I thought that you were gonna do it." Mikey replied.

"I ain't catching no turtle that faints like a little girl meeting her idol."

"Guys, help, I'm a turtle on my back and I can't get up."

The scene caused quite a deal of laughter from the other mutants and Donnie was eventually helped back on his feet, by Leo.

* * *

"So, what's in that crate? And what does it have to do with the 'Chicago Knights'?" asked Sephie.

"You've actually decided on that name?" Jennifer asked Jack.

"If anyone has a better one, I haven't heard it yet. Anyway," Jack turned to Sephie "you and Tyroth have told us about what kind of evils there are out there, and even though our animal parts gives an advantage, you two still have one we don't. So we asked Haito..."

"...to supply them with weapons, just like I did for you." said Haito. "I am not a man of violence, but I know that a weapon can be used for good. And that is what you are doing, which I support."

Haito walked over to the crate and opened it. Secured in black foam were a few weapons and he picked up one of them. It was a sword with a broad curved blade and a knuckle-guard. Haito handed the blade to the wolf.

"For you Jack, a scimitar, it is swift and flexible but has more force than a smaller sword."

Picking up two axes from the crate, Haito turned to Sharky.

"These are based on the Native Americans tomahawks, their broad heads give a large impact area and the counterweight on the other side can be used as a non-lethal method. They are also designed to be throwable."

The last weapons in the crate were something that the turtles and family recognized. To most it was nothing more than a pair of metal sticks with smaller sticks attached near the end, but they knew that these were tonfas.

"These are for you Sarah. Combining their blunt force with your speed will make you an even more powerful adversary. You can also use them to parry or block attacks with."

The foam was now empty, but Haito simply removed it and unveiled another layer of foam with more weapons and oddly something that looked like the legs or arms of a suit of armor. These were the first thing Haito picked up, they were nearly two feet in length and had leather padding and straps.

"Percy, these greaves may look out of place, but for you they will be perfect. The metal and leather will protect your shins and add extra force to every kick you make. The extra weight will also help you train your strength, making you even more dangerous."

The next weapon Haito picked up was also a pair, and Mona recognized these as well, she had seen them many years ago in a museum. Or at least something very similar. A short triangular blade attached between two bars with a handle in the middle. That kind of weapon kinda stands out from most, but the name eluded Mona.

"Katar. A rather unique weapon from India. Precise and perfect for someone agile, I think they will suit you just fine, Heather."

A coiled up whip of light brown leather with a black leather woven into it gave it black zig-zag-like pattern was the next weapon.

"To effectively use a whip in combat requires great precision, something I believe that your snake-attributes should provide, Kate. Ironically, this particularly form of a whip is called a 'snake-whip'."

"Don't say anything, Percy, not one word." Kate said glaring at the grasshopper, as if she suspected something.

"I don't have anything new for you Sephie, but I did bring more arrows for you, just in case." Haito said, pulling out a smaller crate filled with arrows. "I've got even more in the bottom, but there is one more thing." Removing the second layer of foam, Haito revealed the single largest object in the crate.

A sword. A large sword. Its blade was more than four feet long and ten inches broad, the handle was just as long. Tyroth simply looked at the sword, amazed by the craftsmanship and the fact that it was his old sword, only larger.

"Trying to repair your sword would have been too difficult and unreliable, so we used what remained and some more and reforged it." Haito started "It took a lot of time and effort, and I actually had to call in a few favors from some of the worlds best sword-smiths, but your sword has been reborn. Go on, take it my friend."

Picking up the sword with a slightly shaky hand, Tyroth smiled when he felt the familiar grip on the handle and the weight of the sword. Granted, it was a bit heavier than before, but Tyroth could still carry it with one hand without problem. He was anxious to train with it, to learn how to use it like before. As he admired it, he saw an inscription of some sort on the blade. He recognized it as some form of Japanese writing.

"I hope that you don't mind that we named the sword for you." said Haito "We call it Ryujin, in your honor."

"That translates roughly into 'Dragon blade'. A fitting name." said Splinter.

"It's more than fitting. It's perfect. Haito, you have my deepest gratitude for this, as does anyone who helped." Tyroth bowed deeply and Haito bowed as well.

"Well, that means the entire team is armed. Now we just have to get the hang of these weapons so we don't cause more harm than good." said Jack, swinging his scimitar a bit in front of him.

"Might I suggest that we keep our distance from each other while training, before we lose an eye, finger, tail or in my case a fin." said Sharky as he backed away from Jack.

**Phew! The research I had to do for this chapter. I sure hope that I got everything right. Speaking of which Ryujin is actually spelled with some form of apostrophe over the u, but I don't have that on my keyboard. Also there are many other ways to write 'dragon blade' but this was short and had character, it also reminded me of Ryu from Street Fighters. If someone still thinks it's wrong, I blame Google Translate.**

**But enough about that, next time we visit the main attraction of Mutopia, guess what that is.**

**Before I leave though, I'm staring a poll on which of the OC's I've introduced in this and the previous chapter that you liked best or would like to see more of. Either way is fine. Should be accessible from my profile. **

**See you.**


	18. Chapter 18

**Ancient Legacy**

**Chapter 18**

The team left the improvised training hall so that the 'Chicago Knights' could practice with their newly acquired weapons. Tyroth kept one hand on his reforged sword, Ryujin, as it hung attached to his belt. He smiled.

"Happy?" Raph asked.

"Yes. It feels almost like being reunited with an old friend."

"I understand the feeling." said Leo. "My swords were destroyed once and I had make new ones from scratch, but the feeling when I finally held them in my hands was just as you just said."

Passing several passageways in the tunnel, Sephie told them to stop. She walked ahead into a larger tunnel, just a few meters.

"Hello?" she called. Getting no reply, she turned to the team. "Okay, we can go in."

"What's going on?" Mona asked.

"That tunnel leads to our 'public bathroom', for a lack of better words." Tyroth explained "As you no doubt saw in your rooms, there weren't even a shower. We have this instead, so we never bothered with the piping for showers or tubs. Downside is that anyone could walk in on you at any time."

"That's why it's common practice to ask before you enter." Sephie continued. "We also have certain times when it is reserved for men and women respectively, I'll make sure to teach you the schedule later, outside of those times, however, it's free for anyone to use."

"Must be cold, though, water-temperatures this deep underground are not very high, around ten degrees Centigrade or so." said Donnie as they walked through the tunnel.

"Normally yes, but we've been very lucky." said Tyroth.

"How so?" asked Leo. His question was answered when they exited the tunnel. It was a smaller cave than the training hall, also lit up by crystals on rods, with an almost circular pool of water around five meters across. The pool wasn't much deeper than a meter overall, getting slightly deeper in the middle where it was about one and a half meter. At the far side of the pool, there was a small waterfall flowing out of the wall a few meters above the pool. The air in the cave felt warmer than in the rest of the tunnels.

Mona approached the pool and dipped her toes in it. She found it pleasantly warm.

"It's not cold at all. It must be more like twenty-five degrees rather than ten." she said.

"Twenty-seven actually." said Sephie. "Perfect for getting clean or just relaxing a bit."

"The heat must come from some geothermal source of some kind." Donnie speculated.

"Cool." said Mikey, not quite following what Donnie said.

"But where does the water go?" Donnie asked.

"Through there." said Tyroth while pointing at a nearly foot wide channel that continued through a crevice in the wall. "We've manged to trace the water, it surfaces very close to a water treatment plant so any dirt from us is taken care of."

"I understand what you meant by being lucky. This is almost better than back at our place."

"Maybe, but you still got the better beds." said Sephie. "But let's move on, you can come back here later, and there is one last thing to show you guys."

* * *

The group walked further into the cavesystems, passing several tunnels of various sizes before entering a short tunnel. The room they entered through the tunnel was small compared to the previous ones they'd visited.

In the middle of the room was another pool of water so clear that you would have thought it was empty, if not for the light reflecting on the surface, granted you could have believed that it was a sheet of glass rather than water because of how still it was.

The pool itself was almost a perfect circle, two meters across and half a meter deep. The rest of the room was rather inconspicuous, shards of quarts in the wall being the most eye-catching.

Already waiting in the room was the old turtle, George.

"So the tour is almost done then?" he said when he saw the group. Tyroth nodded in response.

"Then allow me to welcome you all to the very heart of our society, the well."

"So this is what you have told us about." said Splinter.

"I thought that it would be, I don't know, more to it." said Raph.

"Its power is still real, regardless of its humble appearance. I am guessing that you know the basics of it by now." said George.

"It heals and mutates." said Leo and George nodded.

"Maybe I should take a sip, I'm still not in tip-top shape." said Mikey, walking forward.

"No!" George said with a sharp voice, blocking Mikey's path with his cane.

"Are you out of your mind?!" Donnie asked his younger brother.

"Do you really have to ask that?" said Raph.

"What? I'm already a mutant, so what can it do?"

"Unlike us, you, your brothers and sensei were animals before. You may not have noticed, but this room is completely void of animals, plants and fungi, unlike the rest of the cave system. They avoid the well for some reason. I fear that it might have a completely different effect on you." George explained.

"He's right Mikey, it might turn you back into an ordinary turtle or mutate you into a monster and trust me, that is **not** a pleasant experience." said Donnie.

"But what about me? I was human before." asked Mona.

"We are not sure, but I have a few theories. Most likely you will become human for a very short time before mutating again, and not necessary into the same animal." said George. Mona was uncertain what to feel about it, but didn't press the matter.

"I'd love to get a sample to run some tests on, but I'm afraid to get too close to it." said Donnie, switching the subject, slightly.

"I think we can fix that later, Donnie." said Tyroth.

"But how does it work, you just drink of it and poof, you're healed?" asked Raph.

"More or less." said Sephie. "Just like Tyroth heals himself very fast, we all heal extremely fast right after drinking the water, takes a few seconds to make a complete recovery from, well, anything."

The mutants left the well shortly thereafter, so that an accident wouldn't happen. While most of them were curious to what effect the well might have on other mutants, none was willing to try for themselves.

With that, the tour of Mutopia was complete. Nothing more to show other than the myriads of tunnels and the city of Chicago on the surface. Not really wanting to go over those parts yet, Tyroth and Sephie decided to let their friends wander around Mutopia as they pleased for a few hours, to get their bearings of the place, before heading up to the surface.

* * *

Splinter withdrew to his quarters and set up some incenses, wanting to meditate a little to properly process everything so far. It would also allow him to get some peace and quiet, Mutopia is far busier than he was used to.

Leo had walked over to the recreation room and sat in one of the armchairs reading a book he found while Mikey was busy setting up the video-games Donnie had brought.

Donnie himself had gone over to the workshop and was analyzing Hackers computers together with said spider.

Feeling a bit stiff after the journey to Chicago, Raph decided to train a bit with his sais in the training room. In the process he could also help the others with their weapon-training, and show off for the rookies.

* * *

Mona walked around in the town square, not really heading anywhere, just walking. Seeing all the different mutants interacting with each other, she got a feeling she hadn't had since she mutated and that she barely noticed before that. That feeling was difficult to describe, but she remembered feeling it whenever she walked among people before, a feeling of kinship, for a lack of better words. Not that she didn't feel that with her new family, but this was different. Back in New York there was only the six of them, here it was a whole village.

"Hey, Mona!" she heard from her right. Turning around she saw Sephie coming towards her.

"Hi Sephie." she answered.

"So, what do you think of our home?"

"It's amazing, though, in some aspects, it could use a makeover."

"I know what you mean. I'd so like to put up some decent wallpaper i my room, maybe with star-pattern." Sephie said with a big smile.

If there was one thing about Sephie that Mona admired, it was how happy she was almost all the time. Mona treasured their friendship, and even though they didn't meet on the best of terms, Mona and Sephie were like sisters now.

"Sephie?" Mona started. "Do you remember last year, when I told you... how I became this way and you said that if I ever needed to talk, you would listen?"

"Of course I do."

"I think I might just need someone to talk to right now."

"Is it that serious?"

"I'm not sure."

"Hmm, let's go to my room and we can talk in private."

They entered a room on the opposite side of where Mona and her family had been given rooms of their own. It was not very different from Mona's room, aside from having a double-bed and a small couch with a TV and DVD-player in front of it.

"Your room, huh?" Mona said looking around a bit.

"Mine and Tyroth's actually, been living here since day one. But enough about that, have a seat somewhere and tell me what's bothering you." said Sephie, sitting on the end of the bed.

"I'm not quite sure where to begin." Mona said as she sat down next to Sephie. "When I mutated, the one thing I wanted most of all was to become human again, so I could return home. Since meeting the turtles, I've accepted what happened, but then you two came along with tales of a well that could heal anything, and I started to wonder, maybe it could make me human again. Not that I would want to leave my new family, mind you. And now I've seen it up close and it may just as likely turn me into something else, and at the same time, being here I feel that I don't have to be human." Mona paused for a short moment before continuing.

"I'm not even sure if I'm making any sense to you, I just feel torn and confused right now."

"I understand, Mona. These last few days have been very eventful. I'm not certain if I can help you very much, but I have an idea that might help you clear your head a little." Sephie got up from the bed and walked over to the drawers. Opening it, she rummaged through it.

"I know that I have another set, but where did I... ah, here it is." She tossed two black pieces of cloth to Mona, who deftly caught them. Looking closer at the cloth, she blushed slightly when she saw what it was.

"Sephie... this is..."

"A bikini, yes." Sephie answered as she took out another bikini from the drawers. "You need to relax a bit and a warm bath might just do the trick, since it's free for all right now. So, unless you want to bathe naked, I suggest that you borrow that. You can either change in the bathroom or in your room if you want."

* * *

"I can't believe you talked me into this, it feels so embarrassing. What if Raph sees me?" Mona said as they walked towards the tunnels, both dressed in the black bikinis and carrying a towel.

"If he do, you'll knock him right on his shell with that outfit." Sephie giggled. "Honestly, I didn't think you'd be so prude."

"I'm not prude, it's just there's so much people around and all. And I usually wear a whole swimsuit."

"Then we'd better pick up the pace."

It didn't take very long before the two girls where at the pool, placing her towel on a rock-bench, Sephie was the first one into the pool. Mona followed suite and carefully lowered herself into the water. Sitting with her back against the edge she was pleased that there were no sharp edges under the surface, in fact it felt much like the walls of an artificial pool. The warm water was very soothing for her body and she felt the stiffness in her muscles loosen. She felt very relaxed.

"Sephie."

"Yeah?"

"Thanks."

"Anything for my best friend."

The two friends simply sat in the warm water for a few hours, occasionally talking a bit, but otherwise just enjoying the calming atmosphere in the room.

**And with that, we're done with Mutopia for a while, but we will return, hopefully not too far into the future. Anyway, next time we follow the gang topside and see what kind of trouble the turtles will get themselves into, they're like magnets for strange things.**

**So until then, leave a review, vote on the poll, tip some of your friends about this fic or at least tip the waiter the next time you go to a restaurant. Thanks for reading and keep tuned.**


	19. Chapter 19

**Ancient Legacy**

**Chapter 19**

Tyroth opened his eyes, having spent a couple of hours sitting in front of the well meditating, hoping to gain some new insight to the questions they'd been given. Unfortunately, he saw nothing beside what he had already seen.

"Still nothing." he said. "I know that the well has something to do with this mess, so what am I missing? It protect both me and Sephie from the demons taint, and most likely does the same for everyone in Mutopia, but is that all? It might be poisonous to the demons, but I don't dare testing it on them. It might just as well make them even more powerful."

Getting up and stretching a bit, Tyroth turned and left the cave, hoping that it would come to him shortly.

"Let's see if I can't round up the gang and head out on patrol. There is a lot of unfamiliar ground for them to navigate."

* * *

"I **so** needed that bath, thanks again Sephie." Mona said as she changed from the borrowed bikini to her ninja clothes.

"It's a good thing that we have more than one 'healing pool'. Any time Tyroth and I came back after fighting Overlords goons or just regular thugs, we took a long bath to relax. Works wonders."

"That it does."

The girls walked out of the room after getting properly dressed, they were met by Tyroth, who just walked up the stairs.

"Hey girls. I was just about to go looking for you." he said, followed by an explanation to why he was looking for them. Agreeing with the idea of a patrol of the city, they split up to find the turtles.

* * *

Mona went to the place she thought most likely to appeal Leo, the rec-room. Leo very much enjoyed a good book and since the rec-room had several that he might not have read before, it seemed like a good place to start. And Mona was in luck, she found both Leo and Mikey, though Mikey wasn't reading but playing the video-games Donnie had brought.

"There you are." she said. "We're going topside, wanna come along?"

"Sure, we need to get some exercise, and it will be interesting to see their territory as well." said Leo, closing the book he was reading.

"Count me out." said Mikey "I'm still weak, and I'm close to get a new high-score on this game."

"True, but I think that some physical activity will do your recovery some good." said Leo.

"But..." Mikey started, trying to find an argument against Leo's. During that short time, his attention on the game was lost and a message was heard from it.

-Game Over-

"Ah, shell... Looks like I've coming too, right?"

"Yeah." Leo and Mona said in unison.

* * *

Sephie wandered around a bit, wondering where the turtles might be. When she passed the doors to the workshop, she realized that Donnie must be with Hacker. Entering the workshop, she walked around Rattletrap and his pile of parts with a good margin. Opening the door to Hackers corner, she did indeed find Donnie working on the computers together with the spider.

"Hey, Donnie. Sorry for disturbing you, but we're heading topside and thought that you might want to tag along."

"That sounds like a good idea. I'm just going to wrap things here first. Don't want to leave Hacker here with a mess." Donnie answered and reattached the side-panel of the computer he had been tinkering with.

"That's mighty kind of you Donnie, but I got this. Just be careful."

"Are the streets of Chicago really that bad?" Donnie asked.

"No, not really, but Rattletrap's still working out there."

A clang of metal being dropped was heard, followed shortly by the irritated cursing of said rat.

"Oh for the love of the devil and his mother-in-law! Work damn you, you worthless pile of junk!"

"I see your point." said Donnie to Hacker.

* * *

Tyroth exited Mutopia and entered the caves, having a hunch where he might find Raph. Granted, it would have been easier to simply call them on the shell-cell, but it was more interesting trying to guess where they are. Walking through the tunnels, Tyroth made his way to the training room, and sure enough there was Raph.

He was currently locked in a sparring session with Sarah, the cheetah, both using their weapons, while the others watched. It was clear that Raph was the superior with his sais, he did have experience in martial arts since he was a kid, but Sarah wasn't doing to bad herself. Her speed and agility combined with the tonfas allowed her to give Raph some opposition.

"I hope you're not trying to remove potential rivals, Raph." Tyroth said, gaining the attention of the group.

"What? Shell no. I'm just giving these rookies some pointers." he said as the two mutants ended their practice.

"Never thought that I'd see you in the role of teacher."

"I have my moments, but I doubt that's the reason you came here."

"I thought you might want to see the sights topside, we're planning on heading there shortly."

"Count me in." Raph followed Tyroth to the exit of the room. "We'll continue some other time." he said to Sarah and the others before leaving.

"He's good, very good." Sarah said, once Raph and Tyroth were out of earshot. "He don't look too bad either, too bad he's already taken."

"Can't say that I see what you see in him." said Kate "The one in the orange mask, on the other hand. He's rather cute."

"Do you have a crush on that guy?" Percy asked in a very teasing manner.

"So what if I do?! Mind your own business, and if I even hear you humming that 'Sitting in a tree'-song, I'll glue bird-seeds onto you and leave you in a park filled with pigeons!" Jack snapped.

"Maybe we should split up the two of them before someone dies." Sharky suggested to Jack, who nodded.

* * *

With the team all together, they exited Mutopia through the tunnel they arrived through yesterday. A short walk through the sewers eventually led them to a manhole leading to the surface. It was an unusual feeling for the turtles, to walk around in sewers that they've never been in before. Mona on the other hand, only having lived 'down-under' for almost two years, remembered the feeling well from when the turtles took her on their patrols in the beginning.

The manhole led, unsurprisingly, to an alley, where the mutants could easily keep to the shadows. Some quick jumps on the fire-escape on one of the buildings, got them up on the rooftop from which they could survey large parts of Chicago.

"So this is how you felt when you saw New York like this for the first time." said Leo, looking out over the cityscape.

"Pretty much, yeah." Sephie answered.

"Unfortunately, we can stand around admiring the view." said Tyroth. "We have a lot of ground to cover tonight, showing you where there are good places to get back into the sewers. Among other points of interest."

The mutants nodded and followed their guides as they leapt from roof to roof. The tour took a few hours as they went all over the city. Mikey was able to keep up despite not being at his peak yet, indicating that he was recovering nicely from his run-in with the demons.

"That should cover the most of it." Sephie said as they stopped on a rooftop.

"Is there gonna be a quiz on this later?" Mikey asked, panting slightly.

"Nah, but it's still good to know. How about we get ourselves a snack before we go back? Hope you like donuts."

* * *

Joe Masterssen was a man in his forties, quite chubby with very little hair left and all of it gray, running a late open donutshop called 'Mr. Donut'. He had wanted to call it 'Joe's' after how many times a phrase like 'Eat at Joe's' had been used in cartoons and the like, but he didn't want to cause a case of copyright infringement, besides there were already some place called 'Joe's' somewhere, or something.

His shop was fairly simple and small, he had a small office and the kitchen where he made the batter and several kinds of donuts. The wall facing the street had a large hatch from which he served his customers, mostly cops on patrol and people working nightshifts. One strange feature was the thick cork dartboard that hung outside on the left part of the wall, about half a meter from the hatch.

"Hey Joe." a man in his early thirties said. "I've been meaning to ask you. What's the deal with the dartboard here? I've never seen any darts."

"Oh that, well, aside from getting people to talk, it's used by some very special customers."

"How is it used? And special how?" The man asked. Mere seconds later an arrow embedded itself in the dartboard, scaring the man so he almost fell off the chair.

"That's how it's used." Joe answered as he stretched out and untied a note tied to the arrow, containing a list and some money. "Quite the large order this time, wonder if they're having a party of some sort. Please excuse me for a moment."

"What the hell?! Who the hell does that?!" the man asked, having barely begun to calm down.

"Heard about those vigilantes that got rid of that creep Overlord, and that have been cleaning up amongst other criminals as well?" Joe asked as he packed a paper bag with half a dozen donuts. "That's them. Saved me from muggers almost two years ago, so I sell them donuts. Though, as far as I'm considered I wouldn't mind giving them free donuts, but they insist on paying and even give a tip. That should do it."

Pulling loose the arrow, Joe tied the bag to it and pulled in a barely visible string attached to the arrow. The string stretched and Joe let go of the arrow. He and the man watched as the bag was pulled over the small road and up the side of the building opposite of Mr. Donut, vanishing out of sight as it moved higher into the darkness above the streetlights.

"Ah, good. I was afraid it might have been too heavy."

"Does that happen a lot?" the man asked, still very shaken.

"Not really, once every two or three weeks, but I'm sure they check up on me more often than that."

* * *

"So that's how it is, huh? Convenient." said Leo as he was given a donut.

"I know." said Sephie. "Joe is such a nice guy."

"Just how many human friends do you have anyway?" Mona asked.

"Not that many. Around a dozen or so, if we count the friends of other Mutopians as well. Though most are ours, so to speak." said Tyroth.

After finishing their snack, the mutants continued on their way, taking one last sweep over a smaller area before heading back down into the sewers. Unbeknownst to them however, they were being watched by a pair of green eyes of a bat-like creature. It did not follow them when they left, instead it headed in the opposite direction. Once it reached a dark and empty alley, a portal opened, through which it entered.

* * *

The general of the demons walked in a hastened pace on his way to his lord, Xazahl.

"You are in a hurry, Celorach." said a voice as he passed a corner in the maze-like world they resided in. Turning to the voice he saw a demon very much like himself, but with a dark-red suit of armor and a slightly younger look overall.

"I have urgent news for lord Xazahl, Raithior. I have no time for distractions."

"Is the news about what happened to Ulaimor, Gomar and his squad? About the mortal who..."

"Speak no more of it! Or I will silence you here and now." Celorach snarled.

"You would strike down your own brother?" Raithior asked.

"It matters not." said Celorach as he left.

* * *

A short time later, Celorach had delivered the new to his lord in his throne-room.

"So, the dragonman is in the big village the mortals call 'Chicago'. And the others are with him." Xazahl said. "Even though he have but a portion of the dragons power, he is a threat that should be removed as soon as possible. And that goes for the others as well. Send Uzedor, Axorahn and Vexuhn after them."

"Yes, my lord."

On his way to gather the demons his lord had requested, Celorach once again ran into his brother.

"I take it that we are to strike soon." said Raithior.

"Yes, as soon as these strange mortals are out of the way, there will be nothing left to stop us, save for the ordinary weak mortals. And they will not last long." Celorach said as he passed by, continuing on his way, leaving Raithior alone.

"So it begins. Soon, this world will fall, like so many before it and more are still to come. And only a handful of mortals stand in the way. I wonder how they will fare." Raithior thought to himself.

**Not quite sure what to write here, other than stay tuned for chapter twenty. Things may heat up.**

**As for the 'Mr. Donut' part, it popped up in my head and I couldn't drop it. Overall, I had quite the good time writing this particular chapter. Especially when the spellcheckprogram went over the demon names, some of them were very fitting to the characters.**

**But that's enough rambling from me. See you next time. **


	20. Chapter 20

**Ancient Legacy**

**Chapter 20**

A few days passed for the mutants and they were adjusting to their new surroundings, in fact they felt quite at home in Mutopia. They were not about to abandon their lair in New York, but it was nice to know that they had another place that they could call home. The days had been calm with only a handful of fights against minor gangs, nothing really challenging. Most of them gave up without a fight, which annoyed Raph. He was itching for a fight, and with no Foot-ninja in town, there weren't much in the way of opposition.

This day, they were gathered in the training hall with Tyroth standing in the middle of the room and the turtles standing in a circle, roughly five meters in diameter, around him.

"This ain't gonna be a fair fight." he said.

"Count on it." said Raph.

"Is everyone ready?" Splinter asked from the edge of the room, where he and the others stood.

"We're ready master." Leo responded.

Splinter nodded to Jack, who pulled a tuning fork from one of his pockets. Hitting it against the wall, the sound echoed through the room and all crystals started to fade. Donnie had explained that these kind of crystals react to soundwaves, just like the ones they found when they met Sydney, or Quarry as she was called back then. The right vibrations could turn the light on or off and a tuning fork worked like a switch for an entire room while individual crystals only required that you tapped them with a nail, claw or even a teaspoon.

* * *

It wasn't long before the room was completely dark. The training session was meant to further train the turtles in fighting without any light-sources and Tyroth had volunteered to help them train, however that was before he knew what they would be doing, not to mention his role. He was supposed to be their opponent, fighting four ninja in complete darkness.

"Begin!" Splinter's voice was heard throughout the room.

It was dead quiet for a while, then the swooshing sound of something or someone moving was heard, followed by several more swooshes. Those were in turn followed by a few thumps in one area of the room. Groans could be heard from that area as well.

"Light, please." Splinter said. Jack struck the wall with the fork again and the light returned.

The four turtles lay in a heap on the floor while Tyroth stood in the same place as before the lights were turned off.

"Dudes, what happened?" Mikey asked.

"My guess would be that we got our shells handed to us."

"How did you do that?" Leo asked, getting up. "We didn't make enough sound for you to know where we were, and you never moved."

"Yeah, what gives?" Raph asked.

"Well, you see, I've got what I call 'dark vision'. It's a few steps ahead of night vision, which requires some form of light-source. Dark vision don't, I could see as clear as in broad daylight, albeit only in different shades of gray."

"So, when you said that it wasn't going to be a fair fight, you meant that it wasn't going to be a fair fight for **us**." said Donnie, to which Tyroth nodded

"How come you never told us about that before?" Raph asked.

"It slipped my mind, I don't think much about it since it's automatic."

"If we're doing this again, I'm voting for having you wear a blindfold." said Mikey.

As the turtles picked themselves up and brushed of some dust, Hacker came running into the room.

"Hey guys... 'pant pant'...I **so** need to exercise more."

"Calm down. What's the matter?" Sephie asked.

"Long story short, I was checking the internet for any images or videos of us, as usual. And I found something you may want to see. Follow me and I'll show you."

"Sounds important." said Tyroth. "Looks like our training will have to wait."

* * *

The mutants followed Hacker to his computer corner, all could not fit inside but were able to look through the door.

"As I said, while cleaning up the web from pictures of us, I found this." Hacker brought up a picture on the largest screen. It was in poor quality but you could still make out certain details. It was of some sort of creature climbing up the side of a building. The creature itself was disproportionally large above its waist and had some form of tail, it also seemed like it had more than two arms but that was difficult to confirm.

"Not one of yours, I take it." Raph said to Sephie who shook her head.

"What do you think about it, Tyroth?" Leo asked "Do you maybe recognize it, or something."

"Can't say that I do, but my gut tells me that that thing ain't friendly. And I think I know where the picture is taken, so we can go there and check for clues."

"We better be careful, if I'm judging the scale of that thing properly, it's at least five or six meters long, perhaps even larger." said Donnie.

"Regardless, it might be a demon, and we can't let something like that roam around the city as it pleases. Let's gear up and move out." said Leo. "Are you guys coming too?" he asked the remaining members of the Knights.

"We'd like to, but I'm not sure if we're ready yet." said Sarah.

"Had it been ordinary humans, such as gangmembers or the like, we would have followed. But a demon? That's out of our league, especially since we don't have as much real combat experience as you guys do." said Jack.

"You do not have to feel bad for not going. The first step to improvement is to know ones limits." Splinter said. "I will help you with your training while the others investigate this creature."

"I don't want to sound ungrateful, but will you truly be able to help us? None of us have any experience in the ninjutsu that you teach, so I sort of doubt that you can help us much." said Heather.

"There is no need for concern, my dear. I can give you some pointers to how to improve your skills and, in time, you will develop into fine fighters, each with your own style."

"Seems like you guys will be in good hands." said Leo. The team then left, leaving the Knights in Splinter's care.

* * *

It took them nearly half an hour before they arrived at the place where Tyroth believed that the picture had been taken. Investigating the area proved to be a bit difficult, the streetlights shone almost straight into the alley, reducing the number of hiding-places greatly, even for a ninja. Luckily the upper parts of the walls were still covered by shadows and thanks to Sephie's ability to climb almost any surface, they found claw-marks on the wall, deep claw-marks.

"Whatever that thing is, it got very sharp claws." Sephie said as she climbed back onto the roof where the other waited.

"At least that gives us something to track." said Donnie. "I found some more marks on the other side of the roof, and if the creature holds this course, it's heading south-west."

Following the tracks across the rooftops for fifteen minutes, the team came to a stop, where the tracks seemingly ended with no real indication of where the creature might have gone from there.

Deciding to split up, as risky as that tactic was, they divided themselves into four groups. Being only seven, one would have to go alone, which Tyroth volunteered to do. His strength and healing ability gave him the greatest chance of survival should he run into the creature, and his immunity to the demon taint further increased his odds if it was a demon they were searching for.

Tyroth headed to the north, Leo and Mikey to the east, Raph and Mona to the south and Donnie and Sephie to the west. Each group moving as silently and stealthy as the possible could.

* * *

As Tyroth searched the northern parts, he soon came to a scrapyard. Rattletrap often came to places like that to find parts for his contraptions, most of which were occasionally more dangerous than the scrapyard itself. Tyroth's thoughts were abruptly interrupted when he noticed something moving amongst the pillars of scrap. He landed so he could get a closer look.

Sneaking around in the scrapyard, he constantly caught glimpses of something moving round corners, but never catching up with whatever it was, always being just out of his sight.

'It's either searching for something or it's toying with me.' he thought.

* * *

Meanwhile, Leo and Mikey were looking in the east, with no clues what so ever.

"I think we took the wrong road, bro." said Mikey.

"It seems that way, Mikey, but let's keep looking a little longer. Maybe something will turn up."

Suddenly, there was a small beep from Leo's shell-cell.

"Clue-on-demand?" Mikey said scratching his head. Checking his shell-cell, Leo found that he'd gotten a text-message from Tyroth.

'Found something. Head to the scrapyard in the north, you can't miss it. Tyroth.'

"That counts as clue for me, and it must be important. Let's move Mikey, and remember stay quiet."

* * *

It took a little time, but considering that Leo and Mikey had only been in Chicago for less than a week, that was not so bad. Arriving at the scrapyard, the two turtles deftly jumped over the wooden walls surrounding the yard. Sticking to the shadows, they moved silently among wrecked cars and other vehicles. They quickly found Tyroth somewhere near the center of the yard, standing with his back against a pile of cars.

"About time you showed up. Come on." he said and walked into a narrow path between walls of scrap. The two turtles followed their large friend.

"Shouldn't we wait for the others?" Leo asked.

"No time." Tyroth stopped just before a bend in the corridor. "Take a look around the corner."

Peaking around the corner, Leo and Mikey were expecting to see one or more demons or something equally troublesome, but all they saw was an empty dead end.

"I don't get it." said Mikey "What was it you wanted to show us?"

Turning around, the brothers were met by a sight that chilled their blood. Tyroth swung his large sword against them, with a killer gaze and evil smile, aiming to decapitate them.

**Wait, what?! What did I just write? Okay, checking background, Tyroth equals good guy. So why the shell...**

**You know what, let's just see what happens next time and hope for the best. **


End file.
